Love, War, Hate
by The accident waiting to happen
Summary: Esdeath and Tatsumi fic in which Esdeath is given the Tatsumi she always wanted. There will also be OCs that will be a large part of the plot.
1. Prologue

**Extra Update: Have made much needed revisions to this chapter**

 **Final Update 7: New Chapter coming very soon, is over 50000 words currently in editing process**

 **New Update 6: HUGE UPDATE: Due to it now being a full year since the release of this story and I'm still not done with the full original chapter I now feel as though I have no choice but to split chapter 2 into two subchapters just so that I can release additional content earlier. So now the first part of chapter 2 will be leading up to my to main character's introduction with the second part being their respected back stories. I am currently at 36000+ words and predict that chapter 2 part 1 will be around 38000 words and expect to be finished with that somewhere in the halfway mark of my forty day update period and again thank you for all the reviews, follows, and favorites, and to the follower that I lost please know that I'm terribly sorry for whatever reason that caused you to do that and I hope I can win you back with chapter 2's release in a couple of weeks, again thanks guys.**

 **New Update 5: Sorry again guys chapter 2 still not ready but I am getting closer and closer to the end as I have now surpassed 32000 words. There is now a maximum number of 4 more updates before chapter release which I now project to be in the neighborhood of about 36000 words please bear with me and keep the reviews, follows, and favorites coming I check them every day thanks again guys.**

 **New Update 4: Again terribly sorry guys chapter two is still not ready but the end is getting nearer as I have passed 28000 words and have reached the point where i have introduced my two main characters still predict that by the year I will have another update I promise there will be no more than 5 more updates before chapter realease again if you enjoy the small portion that was chapter on you'll love chapter two and beyond and please keep the reviews, follows, and favorites coming I read them all.**

 **New Update 3: Once again chapter two is still not ready the last month has been super busy for me so this will likely have been the least amount of writing I will have gotten done. Since around May this year I lost my main source of writing which is my iPad and have been having to write everything from my phone so I'm physically unable to write as fast as I'd like. I have written 25000 plus words so far and predict chapter two to be a bit over 30000 words it is still coming with my estimate being by the end of the year. Again sorry guys this is my first story so I wanna make sure it's right that is way it is taking so long but again I promise it'll be worth it**

 **New Update 2: Again terribly sorry still no chapter 2 yet it of course is still coming, when, I cannot say for sure but it definitely is. A little update on my progress is that I have officially passed the 20k word mark and am now estimating somewhere in the neighborhood of 27k words. And again please bare with me you won't be disappointed if you like the concept of the story so far you're going to love it once I add the mass of depth that is chapter 2 to it. Again keep the reviews, follows, and favs coming and if you guys wanna help me out help me come up with a name for Esdeath's mother I'm sure you guys can do better than I on that.**

 **New Update: There will be a progress update at least every month until second chapter realeases I originally thought chapter 2 would be around 10000 words it has already passed that and is currently on pace for about 20000 I urge you to please bare with me as I am working diligently to complete it and as always please keep the reviews follows and favorites coming I promise you won't be disappointed**

 **Update: Story is now officially on hiatus only because it is taking so god awfully long to write second chapter. I can only promise two things, 1: The gap between chapters 1 and 2 will no doubtably be the largest between chapter realeases I can say for sure I have been working on it every weekday just soooo much to write. And second chapter two is most definitely where everyone will fall in love with story until then please keep the reviews coming**

 **Author's Note: Again finally released and again this will be a Tatsumi x Esdeath however they wont be introduced until the second chapter which will be their individual prologue stories as chapter one is the main story prologue. Again there will be OCs that will have a big role in this story so I'll try to make them as likable as possible. And again in this story I feel as though I'm giving Esdeath the perfect Tastumi for her so obviously he is going to be drastically different than the original one but I'll still try to keep some of his core personality traits.**

* * *

 **Prologue: The fall of Beast the rise of Man**

* * *

Long ago, during the dark ages of mankind, the world was ruled by several ruling classes of intelligent and civilized ultra-class Danger Beasts. During these times humans lived scattered about the world in nomadic tribes with populations ranging in all sizes but mainly located in the central continent. At this time the world's populace, both human and Danger Beast, were highly apprehensive due to the growing tension between the worlds two most powerful clans of danger beast. The Ice Demons of the North being 15 feet tall with lizard like bodies of scaly blue skin, long spike-tipped tails, aquamarine eyes with cat-like piercing sky-blue pupils, talons and fangs. Then there were the Fire Dragons of the South who were also 15 feet tall with red scaley and spikey red skin, long tails with a spine of spikes, horns protruding from there head, ruby-red eyes with bright orange pupils akin to that of a lizards, also similarly adorned with fangs and talons.

Humans had their choice, to either loyally serve one of these danger beasts clans as subjects under their rule or live on their own, unincorperated from both the rule and protection of these danger beasts from less powerful, less intelligent and therefore potentially more dangerous creatures and Danger Beasts. The two powerful antagonistic clans had ruled over humans and had lived in relative peace between them for centuries, with the exception of a few petty skirmishes between their lower classes of dragons and demons. Although the two clans of Danger Beasts were mostly peaceful with each other the reason for these petty skirmishes were the clans belligerence and belief that their respected clans were the strongest. Both of the powerful species of Danger Beasts had conquered there respective lands through brutal wars consisting of the fire dragons or ice demons completely and unmercifully whiping out the other strong and intelligent clans of Danger Beast or the few tribes of humans that dared oppose them. Humans were given a choice by the Danger Beasts die, surrender and become their loyal servants, or leave their lands for the central contintent which was known for its species of savage Danger Beast. Most humans chose to live in the central continent and take their chances with the weaker danger beast that preyed upon them while the dragons and the demons would however havr two tribes of humans with each of them having always being completely loyal to them due to their admiration of their immense strength.

The Partas Clan, known as the worlds best hunters and trackers, all adorning their tribe symbol of a black equilateral cross, all born with a pale skin tone, frost colored hair ranging from white, silver and gray to several different shades of powder blue, and ice blue eyes. Every member born to the clan had an innate and intense desire to kill and with a mostly general lack of concern for all life. The Partas clan chose to serve the Ice Demons who were led by the almighty Ice Demon God Queen Frisis. The Pachea Clan, known as the worlds most fierce and brutal warrior clan, all wearing their clan symbol of a blood red horizontal diamond with a smaller vertical black diamond in the middle, all with a tanned complexion, hair color ranging from blonde to dark brown,and green eyes, served the Fire Dragons lead by the all powerful Fire Dragon Lord King Kairyu. These two clans were actually smaller in numbers than most tribes, however, they more than made up for it with their natural God given individual strength with each member of the clan being born with the insatiable lust for battle and the desire to become as strong as humanly possible then become stronger.

The two clans of Danger Beasts, after conquering their respected lands, had remained contentiously peaceful with one another for centuries knowing that an all out war between the two clans could possible destroy the world due to the hellacious power each member of the two clans had. However, one day, The previous rulers of these clans, Frisis' and Kairyu's fathers, had decided amongst themselves, knowing that they may be near the end of their lives due to old age, to have a personal duel to sate their burning desires to know which one of them was the strongest. After a long and drawn out battle, in which they had isolated far from anyone, man or danger beast's eyes, the two Kings would destroy each other leaving their sole heirs as rulers. The two kings, before departing their kingdoms for what would turn out to be their final battle, left there children with identical specific orders the night of their battle.

"If I do not return by dawn's break you are the ruler of our people now".

With the passing of these two rulers the new rulers, Kairyu and Frisis, immediately began preperations for all out war against each other. Although peace had been maintaned for generations amongst them the dragons and the demons were naturally antagonistic against each other to the point that there had been death on both sides due to a few isolated incidents amongst mainly lesser beast. However, then Princess Frisis and Prince Kairyu couldn't help but challenge groups at a time of the others kind and easily slaughter those group itching for the day they could actually challenge each other. They had refrained from fighting each other for so long not out of fear of their fathers but out of respect and honor for them. That was the strongest bond amongst these danger beast, honor and pride, if they were defeated in battle they respected they're opponent and whatever fate that would wait for them in defeat be it death, sparing, or from only the fellow species of Danger Beasts, servitude. Their strong loyalty to their fathers had spawned simply out of respect to the progenitor of their awesome power therefore they felt they owed them their lives, hence they swore never to disobey their fathers while they were still alive and start a war, they could only challenge lesser beasts to duels, or eachother to "friendly duels", friendly in only killing wasn't allowed. Now that their fathers had passed they were no longer bound by their fathers wills. They begin battle immediately within the central region no longer able to tolerate each other's presence, and the aching desire to know which of the two clans was more powerful. During this long battle between these two danger beast clans a large amount of the human settlers of the central plains had gotten caught in alot of the crossfire of this titanic battle.

Kanpeki Man a tribe leader had united most of the nomadic tribes of the central plains through his charisma, military strength, and considerable wealth that he had accumulated though his strength in being able to easily slay the wild danger beasts. During his time uniting most of the central tribes he had also acquired the worlds most brilliant scientific minds. He had done this in order to, combined with his resources, create powerful weapons meant for his best warriors to combat the danger beasts with. Originally this was done for extra protection against the hordes of wild danger beast that dwelled alongside them in the central region. When word of the war between the Danger Beasts clans reached Kanpeki he knew than that this may be an opportunity to eliminate the fire dragons and ice demons the last beings roaming the world more powerful than humans. As the other Danger Beasts that were stronger than humans were far fewer in numbers to humans to pose a real threat and the danger beasts that had higher numbers weren't strong enough especially with the newly crafted weapons humans had created. Kanpeki, using his tribesmen as couriers, sent messages to both the Partas and Pachea clans. Although these two clans were loyal servents to the two powerful Danger Beast tribes both the dragons and the demons refused to allow the humans to fight alongside them, their pride not allowing them to do so. Kanpeki's messages were to offer the respected clans their lands, wealth, freedom and some of their weapons in exchange for there alligence against what was left of the Danger Beast clans. The two human clans ambitiously accepted the offer seeing this as an opportunity to make their two clans the most powerful groups of beings in the world. For as long as the Partas had lived with the demons and the Pachea had lived with dragons they had trained with them in exchange for being their servants, while also learning as much as they could about them and their power. Now that the danger beasts clans had begun war and had refused to fight alongside them the two humans clans had saw this essentially as the only option.

After a long and cataclysmic war that had destroyed a good portion of a number of settlements amongst the central region the war had came down to just Frisis and Kairyu in the middle of a wasteland just outside of a recently evacuated village both monarchs looking quite different from the rest of there kind due to there royal lineage. Frisis was 10 feet tall with the same scaley skin, hands, feet and tail as her bretheren just smaller and more human looking, along with a fairly large bust. Her face was also more human looking with the same blue scaley skin and fangs. Her eyes where all sky blue sclera containing no pupils and she had long purple hair down to her knees. She also had large angelic wings the same color as her hair. She wore a steel blue armored battle dress with the skirt ending just above her knees with matching pauldrons, gauntlets, and shin guards. Kairyu was 10 feet 2 inches tall also with the same spikey skin, hands, tail and feet of his kind also more human looking just fairly more muscularly defined. His face was more human looking as well with spikes forming on his chin and jaw appearing like a small beard. His eyes were entirely bright orange and he had mid length yellow spiky hair with two horns protruding from the sides of his head. He also had large scaley dragon wings, his outfit consisted of an armored chest plate, gauntlets, metal hip guards as well as shin guards over a pair of thick cow hide pants. The two combatants stand a distance from one another facing each other with their arms crossed glaring at each other before one of them spoke.

"Well it looks like all that's left is you and me, hah, Frisis" said Kairyu.

"I would have hated it if it were any other way, Kairyu, a decisive battle between the last and most powerful of their kind, if I were human I could cry" said Frisis.

"You vile detestable bitch you know we could have settled this between you and I just as our fathers did before us, there was no reason to involve our entire armies in this conflict" Kairyu said in a slightly annoyed manner while rubbing the bridge of his nose with his clawed right index finger and thumb.

"Oh Please Ry Ry you knew as well as I did this day was coming one way or another. our clans have despised each other for centuries, it was only so long one could contain all of that hostility". " My army literally begged me to go to war with you dragons the moment I announced my fathers death to them" she said as she then turned to the side looking up towards the moon with her hands crossed in front of her breast almost in prayer. " Not even allowing me time mourn my dear old father" she said in a somber voice."

Kairyu snickered at this knowing it was an act as he stood with his arms crossed listening to Frisis' display using her incessant crowing as a time to regain what little energy he had lost slaughtering a host of her kind. From his past skirmishes with her he had know her for being one, in his opinion, to never shut the hell up. For nearly as long as he could remember he would challenge Frisis to "friendly" duels meaning only killing was forbidden. In their earlier duels, especially due to Frisis being older thus more experienced, she would constantly taunt him on how her race was superior and she would conquer him and her father the day hers died. How she would turn him into her personal slave to her as she would then rule the world. As Kairyu's strength grew closer to Frisis' still growing strength those taunts, however still prevalent, became less frequent until one day the two young danger beast stopped dueling each other altogether due to there immense power and competitive spirit out of fear that they would have killed each other and break the truce before it would broken on this day.

"Of course he was an antiquated old geezer who never fed his true warrior nature until he was near his deathbed" she said dropping her hands to her sides as she turned to face Kairyu with her right hand resting on her hip, "But he was still my father I owe him my life and respect which is why I had no problem slaughtering the first group of my subjects I could reach, my father's body, wherever it is, wasn't even cold yet how dare they suggest war so soon". " My warriors shock and fear did not last long though as it was soon replaced by craze and excitement because no sooner than when I killed those soldiers I declared war with you". " They were itching for this day to come and so was I, no time to mourn a figment of the past when the future is so bright, admit it Ry Ry, admit you couldn't wait for this day either, you couldn't wait for the day you could fight me with your all no more holding back to uphold this ridiculous truce, that is why you stopped playing with me isn't Ry Ry" she said with a pouty expression.

"Okay first, I have always hated that ridiculous name you have always called me it's stupid as hell" Kairyu said with an angered expressions on his face.

"Awww is My little Ry Ry getting flustered " said Frisis in a mockingly sweet tone.

This caused Kairyu to put a small sadistic smirk on his face and say "and second of course I couldn't wait for the day I could put a yappy little bitch like you in her place where she belongs at the feet of a real king, hell, a nice little piece of ass like you could call me daddy too". Kairyu said before he noticed an instant change in Frisis expression.

" YOOOUUU BAAASTAAARD"Said Frisis as she charged Kairyu losing her temper for two reasons.

One: he aluded to her father not being a true king when she believed her father to be ten times the king Kairyu's father could have ever been and that Kairyu's father was ten times the king Kairyu could ever be as they both did what was best for their kingdoms until their final acts, something that neither Kairyu or Frisis were willing to do with the both of them being far more beligerent than their fathers. Second and most importantly to her overwelming pride as a female warrior Kairyu referred to her as both a bitch and a piece of ass something she would not tolerate from anyone let alone someone whom she was either going to kill or make hers.

With a smile on his face Kairyu said to himself "it's go time" as he narrowly ducked Frisis' fist intended to strike his jaw. He immediately countered with an uppercut aimed for her chin, however, she also dodged that strike. Soon they were in a flurry of thrown and evaded kicks, punches, elbows and knees at blinding speeds. Frisis was the first to make contact catching a punch aimed at her face while dodging, she elbowed Kairyu in the rib causing him to cough up a little orange blood, then while still holding onto his arm she hip tossed him several meters away before she summoned a gigantic ice ball from her hands instantly and hurled it at where he was going to land. Kairyu with the help of his wings was able to rebalance himself in midair stopping himself short and landing gently before he was able to barely jump over the ice ball headed for him which created a crater where it landed, with it still mainly intact. From his position in midair Kairyu fired a larger ball of fire directly at Frisis in which she dodged by jumping directly into the air. As soon as she looked up to relocate Kairyu she noticed he wasn't in the same spot and as soon as she turned her face it was met with a clawed fist from Kairyu send her tumbling face first to the ground creating a short skid trail.

Kairyu then landed on the ground from his position in the air looking at her as she lay there on the ground and then while crossing his arms said " Get your ass up Frisis I know it's gonna take a lot more than that to do you in". With this Frisis purposely slowly rose from the ground on with her back turned to the on looking Kairyu before slowly turning her head to show she was bleeding dark blue blood from her lip with a purely ecstatically happy smile on her face before she spoke.

"My my, my little Ry Ry has grown so strong, stronger than I would have ever imagined" she said before girlishly giggling into her hand. This prompted Kairyu to raise an eyebrow as he soon noticed a change in Frisis' aura.

"BUT SO HAVE I"

Frisis growled while instantly putting a crazed smile showing her sharp fangs on her face before seemingly vanishing before Kairyu's eyes in a flash before reappearing directly in front of him and planting a crushing knee directly in the bottom of his rib cage causing him to cough up bright orange blood and lift him several feet away into the air. Frisis then rushed behind him as he was still flying through the air and connected where his wings met on his spine with a devastating elbow sending him crashing to the ground create a small crater upon impact. Frisis then immediately picked Kairyu up from the ground by his torso and spinned him around one time for momentum before throwing him along with an ice boulder she conjured 100 feet away into a mountain causing it to collapse onto him. It wasn't long before Kairyu recovered easily throwing and blowing boulders off him with his powers while sitting up with one knee up before saying to himself with his same grin on his face.

"Dammit she's gotten strong, I never thought this would be easy but now I'm not sure if I can win this fight". He said while standing up, "Frisis you BIIITCH" Kairyu said to himself before he widened his eyes as he noticed a familiar presence using blinding speed again to appear behind him.

"Who are you calling a bitch, you weakling" Frisis said before throwing a kick aimed for his head.

This time Kairyu was able to react catching Frisis' leg before digging his claws into her shin eliciting a sharp yelp from Frisis. Kairyu while still holding on to her ignited her body in flame with the only thing keeping her from burning being her and her kinds bodies' natural resistance to flame. He then proceeded to smash her flaming body into every pile of mountain remnant he could find causing small explosions each time before flying several hundred feet into the sky with Frisis in tow. He then used his wings to propel them back to earth, then, with them fifty feet away he threw her with all his strength causing her to smash into the earth with enough velocity to create a small tremor as well as creating a large explosion and an even larger crater. Mere seconds later another explosion could be heard as Frisis bursted through the rubble that she was buried in. She was not severely damaged only having a little of her hair burnt at the tips and having a few scorch marks over her body. Using her wings for propulsion she charged at Kairyu with a primal roar with her fists and lower legs covered in a thick layer of ice. Kairyu immediately engulfed himself in flames in time for an ice covered punch that was aimed for his face in which he dodged. He then returned a flame covered punch to Frisis in which she dodged. Soon they were trading off in midair in a barrage of both dodged and blocked kicks and punches, every time there was a block there was also a wave of steam, energy, and booming sound.

After a while some of there attacks began to land first with Frisis landing a right ice covered fist to Kairyu's jaw which elicited another sadistic smile on her face. She followed that up with a left fist also covered in ice to his midsection digging very deep into it causing him again to cough a up a good amount of blood some of it landing on Frisis face causing her to widen her smile as she licked the blood from her lips. As she stood there, before she could withdraw her fist Kairyu grabbed her arm locking it under his elbow which caused another yelp from Frisis who then immediately retaliated with a fist aimed for Kairyu's right. He blocked that fist with his free hand and, while grabbing hold of her arm, maneuvered it so it was in the same position as her other. Kairyu now having her in a double arm bar gave her a devastating flame charged headbutt directly to her nose breaking it and causing a small explosion due to the flames. With blood dripping from her nose a smile crept on Frisis' face as she had an idea that she felt would win this battle. While still in his grasp and before Kairyu could react she reached to his back and jabbed her razor sharp claws deep into his arms causing him to grunt in pain. She then began to channel her power into him in an attempt to freeze him, internally first, the only way he could be frozen due to his both his natural resistances and power. Kairyu, however, noticed what she was attempting to do early and, as she was making her attack, he wrapped his hands around her waist in attempt to combust her. As they both executed there abilities upon eachother there respected powers where canceling eachother out creating a lot of steam around them and causing them both a great deal of pain however neither would let go. They both believed that they were the strongest and there power would eventually win this titanic power struggle.

"I WILL WIN"

The two omnipotent Danger Beasts yelled almost in unison as they pushed even more of there powers upon eachother to the fullest extent of their powers as the roars of these powerful danger beast could be heard miles away as the were then overtaken by a blinding explosion of fire and steam propelling both of there smoldering bodies several hundred meters away from eachother crashing to earth and skidding for several meters more. Both Frisis and Kairyu's bodies were still mostly intact however Frisis was missing her left arm and covered in burn marks as her body lay still smoldering. Kairyu was missing his right arm and was covered in bullet style wounds as his body was steaming heavily as both of them lay unmoving. A silence hushed over the battlefield as the two powerful Danger Beast rulers lay seemingly defeated for minutes.

Soon a group of about 100 humans armed with various different kinds of never before seen weapons and clad in armor made there way to the battlefield before beginning to examine the two fallen Danger Beast. This was the assembled army of the best human warriors of the world that were gathered by Kanpeki armed with the weapons he had crafted to slay Danger Beasts. Kanpeki's plan had been to remain hidden while these two clans fought eachother until there was a clear winner and then slay whatever was left of this devastating battle. The battle, however, turned out better than Kanpeki had hoped for. Not only did most of the dragons and demons completely obliterate each other, with a small few actually discovering the humans as Kanpeki had prepared for and attack them only to be swiftly cut down by the weapons that had been crafted, with there being no deaths and few injuries from his military. Upon the conclusion of this battle he and his men moved to the battlefield to finish off and collect the corpses of Frisis and Kairyu so that they could be drained of there blood as part of his agreement with the Partas and Pachea clans. This deal was that upon the defeat of Frisis and Kairyu their blood would be given to the respected clans chiefs that served them with Frisis' blood going to the Partas Clan's chief and Kairyu's blood going to the Pachea Clan chief.

During these two clans respected servitude of the Danger Beast clans the humans would earn the respect of the Danger Beast, an extremely difficult task. For as brutal as the demons and dragons were they we noble warriors who were honorable in defeat. The two Danger Beast clans had told the two human clans that if they were ever defeated to salvage the blood of one of the royal line and give it to only the most worthy of warriors. Upon drinking their blood that warrior would be embued with all of that Danger Beasts elemental power. As soon as he had the two Danger Beasts blood drained from their bodies Kanpeki had their blood placed into two 3 gallon urns. Frisis blood was put into a golden urn with a black Y-shaped symbol on it with one black dot on each "pit" of the y signifying the Ice demons. Kairyu's blood was placed in a black urn with a gold V-shaped symbol with 3 small black points protruding from each side of the "v" with two small symmetrical triangles placed horizontally inside the "v" signifying the mark of Fire dragon clan. Kanpeki then declared these two urns the 47th and 48th of his Imperial Arms, the weapons he had casted to protect humans from danger beast, naming Frisis' urn, Demons Extract: Demon God Manifestation, and naming Kairyu's urn, Dragons Extract: Dragon Lord Manifestation. Having created these two powerful weapons Kanpeki happily allowed the Partas clan to have Demons Extract as well as the northern lands, while allowing the Pachea clan to have Dragons Extract as well as the southern lands in exchange for their help and knowledge in defeating the intelligent danger beast. And so for the first time the human world would come to know a long period of relative peace.

After the end of the dragon/demon war Kanpeki united nearly all of the human tribes and, armed with the remaining 46 of his imperial arms, created The Man Empire, in which he was its first emperor and for centuries the empire remained peaceful with only small scattered revolutions over the course of their history. Initially both the Partas and and Pachea remained peaceful and cooperative with eachother and the Man Empire for generations, however the belligerence of the two tribes led them to a Great War between them in which the was no clear winner. The war also cost the two tribes, who were both unsuccessful in finding worthy host for the enormously powerful imperial arms, great numbers to the point where they had to surrender there nationhood and become dependent upon the Man Empire. Eventually, after a few more generations, the once bountiful nations worth of people the two clans possessed shrank down to only the size of villages. The Pachea, due to there more violent nature, numbers decreased even further due to civil wars over tribe leadership. Their numbers had decreased so much that there race vanished from history. The only evidence to the general public that the Pachea even existed was buried in the historical archives of The Man Empire.

Generations after the Great War not only had the Pachea clan disappeared from history the Great War itself was forgotten. The Entire species of intelligent danger beast, including most importantly the Fire Dragons and the Ice Demons had been lost to history as well. The Partas Clan, once one of the two most populous singular races of people, had dwindled down to a small village of a little over a hundred members in the northern continent. The Man Empire, however, flourished becoming the 1st, most successful and longest running human civilization in history. With the Capitol still within the heart of the central continent the empire grew to include a lot of both the Northern and Southern continent with their influences reaching to every corner of the world including the unincorperated western and eastern continents. What was left of the Partas clan had settled in a small village in their ancestral home lands of the Northern Continent. The Pachea, having disappeared from history, few knowing they ever existed and even fewer knowing how to identify them, were down to only a handful of families with only the few of them knowing of their true heritage. And so we begin are story of the fates of the descendants oh these two mighty clans, the power held within the urns containing the 47th and 48th Imperial Arms, and also the fate of the Great Empire which once ruled them all.

 **Authors help guide:**

 **Pronuciation: Frisis - Frey zes, Kairyu - Kai re you, Kanpeki Man - Con pike mon, Pachea - Patch e a, Ry-Ry - re-re**

 **Author's Note: There we have it the first of what should be many chapters I'm gonna try to drag this story out as long as I can. If it feel like the pace of this chapter moved to quick that was done intentionally because it's the prologue and I didn't want to spend to much story time on it but this was a preview of how the stories action and humor will be. Reviews will all be read and highly appreciated no matter how inflammatory as well as suggestions and questions. I have yet to establish a timetable for chapter two but should be out by May at the extreme latest.**

 **Update: Chapter 2 is still 100% coming just as the rest of the story, I, as of this update, have already written as many words on chapter 2 as there are total words in chapter 1. As I said chapter 2 will most likely be the longest of the story as I'm squeezing a ton of history into it and I'm introducing the main characters and their backgrounds. The reason for this is because I didn't want to go to long before the main characters were introduced otherwise you probably wouldn't even have mention of them until at least the fourth chapter. That being said should have it out in a month sorry for the long delay just don't have a lot of time on my hands to write. Thank you for you're patience, follows, likes, and reviews appreciated and encouraged.**


	2. Prologue Chapter: First Half

**8th Update: Ok I'll make this one short and to the point, I've finished with that aforementioned brutal move but it however HORRIBLY bogged down my writing to the point where I was only able to write a little over a thousand words this time around. I do greatly apologize for this and promise that this'll be the least productive I'll ever be between updates. I still however expect the chapter to be completed by the end of the summer (the end of September). As always all inquiries are welcome and thank you all for the follows and favourites with a special thanks to zxueX gor having since followed and favoring. Thanks again guys.**

 **7th Update: Terribly sorry guys but I am currently in the middle of a very brutal moving situation and thus my writing has been severely set back as I have reached only 40000 words. I still however expect the chapter to be finished and out by the end of the summer. Once again, thank all you guys for your continued support, again I promise you all it'll well be worth it. Special thanks to Nightmare Nocturnus, OldDustX and Jeanne D'Arc My Waifu for mayoungdosha311ry a favorite of yours and a very special thank you to Sirzuccs, meepswag and youngdosha31 for both following and making my story a favorite you have no idea how much it means to be, until next time guys.**

 **6th Update: Sorry guys another brief update, Chapter 3 has and is roughly 60-75% complete as still I expect the chapter to be released by the end of the summer. I cant thank you guys enough for sticking with me through this long period of time, this much I know as I still average multiple views per day for the story. Once again any questions, concerns or personal reviews please feel free to ask them at any time.**

 **5th Update: Again another update, sorry guys, of course chapter 3 is still 100% coming as it has now surpassed the 30000 word mark as I now, based off the pattern of my writing, expect at least another 20000 words. I'm aiming for, at the MOST, the end of summer to have that completed and of course I should at least have one or two more updates upon my progress before then. I would again like to thank you guys very much for your patience yet again because I know ii's taking quite a while but again I promise it'll be worth it. With one more reminder to you guys as I've stated before only the prolouge chapters (the first two of the story) will be the only chapters that I plan to be anything longer than five thousand words due to their status as being the origin story meaning once chapter 3 has been produced the chapters won't be nearly so long in between. Again guys thank you so very much for your support and again if you have ANY questions regarding the story PM me at ANY time, thank you.**

 **4th Update: Sorry another update guys, chapter 3 has surpassed 20000 words and I'm sure it'll still contain at least 10000 more. As I have stated before and am just reiterating now the prologue chapter(s) was/is the only chapter I plan on not having a preset number of words due to it being a completely original story detailing the lives of most main central character leading up to the canon beginning of the anime. EVERY chapter following, will be essentially me filling in the blanks and will be roughly within the 5000 to 6000 word range. Again thank you guys for the support and special thanks to AGK572, Baumbarth, and Darek321 for having both following and favoriting since my last update.**

 **3rd Update: Yet again another update letting you guys know of my current progress on the second half of the Prolouge chapter aka chapter 3. I have currently surpassed 17000 words with still quite a bit to write about with it possibly being even more than i think it may be. It is this reason why I unfortunately cannot give you guys a projection of any merit as to when that chapter will be released. All that i can say for now is that i try to, be it a little or lot, work on this story everyday a feat which I, for the most part, have accomplished and that I am probably still a little under halfway done with said chapter. I will still give progress updates roughly every month until chapter's release and again thank you all for your support and remember feel free to ask me anything in regards to the story or let me know of any opinions you may have, I'm open to anything and can take ANY critique. Special thanks to Baumbarth and Jackychanie for since joining as followers and favorites, I LOVE THE SUPPORT.**

 **2nd Update: I would now like to take the time to thank every follower and favorer personally. So thank you very much, Blackshade17, Catearedanimefan, ChaosOmega8, chsch20, copland. ciaran, crow woyzeck, Darkknight69ml, DeadPineapple, DeathWalkerKRT, Demented fiction, Esdeath's Neko Assassin, faust79, Frost Metal 0-1, Generation Zero, Ghostwolf1212, Gin no Okami, HeavenNHell0, Icouldntthinkofabettername, jacob. joffe, jijo. varghesejose, jvt135, kouki66, jeager23, Jesalini, KryptekWolf, KunnegAndris, LazyAssassin, LordGhostStriker, Lord Jaune Of Swag, maswin1, mthautpli, PayJoe, Procrastinating Author, redwarrioroflight, redwave166, retona, Rixxy, SavageLotus102696, soulsaberdragon, specterwolf3, Tapperday, The Beast of Sanity, wildman90, XBOY40, Xealchim, Xearthes and Zam-13, for finding some enjoyment in my story and very special thank you to Alpha Ridley, Archangel Uriel XD, Cpt. Biaggio, charlestroya, DeadShot Deadpool, destroyerofheaven, DieRavne, l3w1sx, HomeyT, InobiYoPowa, KingofHeartless'09, LittleBigWorld, Lone wolf aka Black Hawk Omega, Lostinthedarkclouds, macanmannen, onepeicefan, Ouroburos315, RareDarkgon, RevansStories, SteveTheScribe, TheLemonDragon, They Call me Blue, tombomb4592, worldeater888 and Zweitz for finding enough enjoyment in my story thus far to both follow and favorite it. Thanks guys, I must be doing something right, again I'll have the next chapter out as soon as possible.**

 **1st Update: Once again just giving you guys progress of the current chapter of which I have written 7000+ words on it. I do not know how long the next chapter is going to be but I can say that I don't expect it to be as long as this one and I've also provide additional details and edit to this chapter.**

Author's note: I deeply apologize for it taking OVER A YEAR for this Chapter's release. I want you all know that I tried my absolute hardest, barring my sanity, to release sooner but a lot of physical, personal, and technical setbacks have dictated otherwise. All that I can do is offer my deepest and sincerest apologies, and to those that have patiently waited for this and are still with me I hope you enjoy and feel free to critique this in the best way you see fit, I have very thick skin. For a brief general physical description of the Original Characters of this chapter please refer to the character description guide of the main characters of this chapter, my definition of characteristics of are character is thier voice and overall mannerisms, again thanks guys hope you enjoy

 **Character Description Guide**

Name Pronunciations:

Ryujin Nandeya: Ree-You-Jeen None-Die-A

Karin Retsugi-Nandeya: Kaa-Reen Ritz-Gii

Natsu Nandeya: Not-Sue

Natsuki Nandeya: Nots-Kee

Lusantha Auraneka Ragyokuro: La-Saan-Tha Aa-Don-Eck-A Rog-Yo-Koo-Row

Delnøm: Dell-Nyme

Kyouta Nandeya: Kee-Yo-Ta

Yoryu Nandeya: Yod-Dee-You

Lärs Eisläin: Laars Ice-Lay-Een

Malakëth Eisläin: Mell-A-Keth

Beriäle Bloodriver: Bear-Ree-All Blood-River

Characteristics:

Ryujin Nandeya: Will be based, in both appearance and characteristics, off of Sun Ce from the Dynasty Warriors franchise.

Elder Nandeya: Will be based off of Beau Bennett from The Ranch and Bill from Kill Bill in characteristics, and Batou from Ghost In The Shell in appearance with a goatee.

Karin Retsugi: Will be based off of Izumi Curtis from the Full Metal Alchemist franchise, Marlene Angel from Blue Gender and Seras Victoria from the Hellsing franchise in characteristics, and Seras Victoria and Cammy White from the Street Fighter frachise in appearance.

Shinra Man: Will be based, in both appearance and characteristics, off of Sun Jian from the Dynasty Warriors franchise.

Shinji Man: Will be based off of Sun Quan, Dong Zhuo and Yuan Shao all from the Dynasty Warriors franchise in characteristics, and a larger Sun Quan from Dynasty Warriors 2-5 in appearance.

Natsu: Will be based off of Naruto Uzumaki from the Naruto franchise and Roronoa Zoro from One Peice in characteristics, and Kenichi Shirahama from Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple in appearance.

Natsuki: Will be based off of Azula from the Avatar: The Last Airbender and Miu Fūrinji from Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple in characteristics, and Korrina from the Pokemon franchise, Kisara Nanjo and Miu Fūrinji both from Kenichi:The Mightiest Disciple in characteristics.

Lusantha Auraneka Ragyokuro: Will be based off of Mio Kusakai from Keijo and Diva from Blood Plus in characteristics, and Drasna, Cynthia, and Lusamine all from the Pokemon franchise in appearance.

Jinpachi Yamamoto: Will be based off of Heihachi Mishima from the Tekken franchise, King Bradley from the Full Metal Alchemist franchise, and Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto from Bleach in characteristics, and Jinpachi Mishima also from the Tekken franchise and King Bradley in appearance.

Viktor Wallace: Will be based off of Dian Wei from the Dynasty Warriors franchise and Kratos from the God Of War franchise in characteristics, and Sagat from the Street Fighter franchise and Kratos in appearance.

Marcus Pulpet: Will be based off of Xu Zhu from the Dynasty Warriors franchise and Recoome from Dragon Ball Z in characteristics, and Kenpachi Zaraki from Bleach and Chang Koehan from The King Fighters franchise in appearance.

Beriäle Bloodriver: Will be based off of Orochimaru from the Naruto franchise and Wang Jenrei from the Tekken franchise in characteristics, and Orochimaru and The Sorrow from the Metal Gear franchise in appearance.

Esdeath Bloodriver: Will be based off of Satsuki Kiryuin from Kill La Kill and Juri Han from the Street Fighter franchise in characteristics, and Koko Hekmatyar from Jormungand in appearance.

Lärs Eisläin: Will be based off of Jiraiya from the Naruto franchise in appearance.

* * *

 **Prologue Chapter First Half**

 **Part One: Restoration**

It had been over a millennium since the end of the Great War between the Fire Dragons and the Ice Demons resulting in the death of the final two Ultra Class Danger Beast Princess Frisis and Prince Kairyu, which led to the founding of the first human empire the Man Empire. The Empire flourished over the course of subsequent millennium with it going on to be the longest reigning and by far most powerful nation of people the world had come to know. There had only been a few smaller kingdoms that had been founded during that time but none nearly as powerful as The Man Empire with some even falling to it not long after their founding. This was due in large part to the Empire's abundant Military strength and long standing possession of the 46 powerful Imperial Arms with another contributing factor to the Imperial Army's great strength being its ability to attract a rapidly growing contingency of the worlds most powerful warriors born outside the empire to join their ranks. One such warrior was the much renowned current Great General of the Imperial Army Ryujin Nandeya. Ryujin had lived his entire life believing that he and his parents were the last surviving members of the Pachea clan thought long to be extinct. Ryujin's Mother died, as a higher percentage of Pachean mothers had been doing increasingly over the generations leading to the shrinking of their clan, giving birth to him. His father was one of the rare examples of a full blooded Pachea clan member being born without an extreme passion for violence. Ryujin's father despite naturally being a warrior and more than capable of defending himself he chose not to be a warrior. Choosing instead to settle down with a Pachean woman who happened to be from the same village he was from. Ryujin's mother also being of one hundred percent Pachean blood was much like his father being more docile than most Pachea members. Both of his parents after reaching adulthood choose to leave their village to become farmers with a farm located in the southern part of the Northern Continent isolated far from any civilization. Knowing the possible fate of their people Ryujin's parents choose to enjoy most of their time together not choosing to have Ryujin until they were both in their forties. Ryujin however was born vastly different from both of his parents displaying from an early age both an incredible skill and hunger for combat and battle. Ryujin's father having thoroughly enjoyed the beautiful life he had with his wife had promised her on her death bed that he would devote the remainder of his life helping their child achieve whatever ambition he would pursue in life. Thus from the time that Ryujin was able to move on his own and speak he was trained to be warrior. Despite putting him through very harsh and rigorous training Ryujin's father was always loving, caring and supportive while also teaching his son the strong values of the Pachea clan, respect, honor, and duty being among them. Ryujin's father had also regaled him with the story of how their clan had once served a powerful race of Danger Beast before conquering them and the ancient urn that was proof of there victory. Ryujin had always loved his father and always showed a great level of respect to him, despite this however he would often be quite disobedient of his father and quite rebellious. His father however never berated him for this allowing his son to follow his own path with him acting as a guide. By the time Ryujin was ten he had surpassed his father in strength and at age 16 left home and joined the Imperial Army as the youngest member in history. Ryujin wasn't physical intimidating at this point in his life as he stood six feet three inches tall and was about 180 pounds, had long dark brown hair tied in a braided ponytail and very light facial hair on his chin and under his nose. He wore traditional Pachean garb of cargo pants made from a thick leather like material no shirt with a deerskin open red vest with the symbol of his clan emblazoned across the back with two very small hoop earrings in each of his ears with his two black tribal war eagle feathers affixed to a metal piece pierced to his left ear lobe as well as black riding gloves. Normally the registration age minimum had been eighteen but due to Ryujin's incredible strength which was tested upon his registration not only was he allowed admission into the army, but was immediately made into a captain commanding his own regiment. It didn't take long after his entry into the Imperial Army it before he built a reputation as one of the Empire's strongest and most brutal warriors. Within a year he had attained the rank of Colonel after already competing in and nearly singlehandedly winning several battles and campaigns for the Empire. During that year Ryujin also met and instantaneously became friends with the current Emperor Shinra Man descendant of the great 1st Man Emperor. Their friendship sparked from the two men's love and exhilaration for battle as Shinra was a very powerful warrior king. It was not long at all into Ryujin's Military career before he met Shinra on the battlefield, as they were both the type of warriors that strived operating from the front lines, with them immediately respecting each other's battle prowess. The Emperor had respected Ryujin's power so much that upon the completion of his first year in the Military the Emperor promoted him to his personal royal guard a position equivalent to that of a General and bestowed upon him one of the most powerful of the remaining Imperial Arms that the Empire still had in its possession, with more than half of the original 46 either destroyed or out of the Empires hands. Accepting the honor only given to the Empire's most powerful and trusted warriors, Ryujin chose as his Imperial Arms the mighty Phantom Sword: Seishintama. Seishintama had the power to grant its wielder the ability to create a spirit avatar, which was essentially a body and sword double that received a small power boost. The drawbacks to the sword was that while the user was operating the spirit avatar his original body must remain in contact with the original sword undisturbed for the entire duration without any disturbances, which would result in the avatar to break. While the wielder would be operating the avatar it fells no pain and would be able fight as long as it stood upright until the user broke the spell causing all the energy and pain that avatar withstood to come upon the user in a smaller percentage, in most cases limiting the user to one avatar use per day. Due to Ryujin's strength, however, he could use it a least twice a day but he rarely ever did and whenever he did he would hardly expend any energy at all with him limited use strictly to precautionary against particularly dangerous foes not wanting to become too reliant of something he could be disarmed of. Due to his being friends with the Emperor, Ryujin was willingly put at the forefront of nearly all of the Empire's great conflicts and with Seishintama by his side went undefeated as a field soldier in battle. By the end of his third year in the Imperial Army he was a General and by the end of his fourth he had become Great General, commander of the entire Imperial Military and second only to the Imperial family in authority amongst the Empire. Under the guidance of Emperor Shinra and Great General Ryujin the Man Empire had come to know one of the most peaceful and prosperous times in the overall turbulent but successful reign of the powerful Empire. Twenty years into Ryujin's distinguished Military career he met the love of his life when Emperor Shinra introduced him to Karin Retsugi, a young up and coming female warrior in the Imperial Army who also happened to be of Pachea descent with both of her parents being half Pachean. Karin had been in the army for three years and had made it all the way to the rank of Captain before attracting the attention of Emperor Shinra. The Emperor immediately recognized upon their meeting that Karin was of Pachean blood due to her tanned bronze complexion and specific green hued eyes that all Pachea Clan members displayed. She also dressed in traditional Pachean garb, tight fitting brown cargo pants with one leg cut boy shorts short, combat boots, a bright red low-cut vest with the Pachea symbol upon the back, her breast wrapped in white cloth, metal armlets with the Pachea symbol in the middle with a ruby as the "eye" on both her arms, and black fingerless gloves. She also wore a bandana with the Pachea symbol on the front, with her long blonde mid back length hair tied in a long braid with two black war eagle feathers tied to the tip and small gold war eagle feather earrings. The young Pachean maiden joined the Imperial Army when she was eighteen and immediately showed great potential and fighting skill in her early battles, by the time she was 21 and had met the Emperor she was already considered one of the strongest warriors in the Empire. When Emperor Shinra introduced Karin to Ryujin the two almost immediately fell in love. With both of them believing that they were the last of their kind which caused them to be naturally elated with just meeting eachother, so much so that the two hardened Imperial Officers uncharacteristically embraced upon meeting. With their meeting the two Pachea Warriors pledged their lifelong loyalty to eachother and to the Emperor they served who brought the two warriors together. Ryujin immediately asked for and was granted Karin to be made the second in command to his personal infantry. With the two warriors undying loyalty to the Emperor and eachother the Imperial Army entered into a period of great reverence. For over five years after the trio of Emperor Shinra, Great General Ryujin, and Colonel Retsugi became the driving force behind the Imperial Army, the Empire would go on to have, for one of the very few times in its millennium of existence, a time where there wasn't any conflict in the Empire. Not so much as a small uprising had ever come to pass during this time due to both fear of the Army's might and the great support, from common citizens, of Emperor Shinra. During his reign Emperor Shinra had been one of the most popular Emperors of the Man Dynasty. In addition to being a warrior king who was always on the front lines of battle fighting for his people, he was also a very charitable king known for running the Empire with lower taxes on the peasants and higher taxes on nobles with him believing that peasants make up the backbone of society due to their strong work ethics which was necessary, he also saw it as a responsibility of the more fortunate to support the less fortunate believing this would help keep the Empire foundationally strong. Few even wanted to oppose the Empire during these great times with the few that did not having the nerve to do so. That all changed when one day, after having five years of uninterrupted peace within the Empire, Emperor Shinra passed away from a heart attack and when that news finally reached Great General Ryujin and Colonel Retsugi at their shared barracks within the Capitol the two great warriors did not take it well.

"Yes...right...I understand, you are dismissed soldier" Karin said as the messenger saluted her and then departed while receiving a nod from her before she closed the door to her and her husband's barracks behind her.

She and the Great General lived in a huge mansion like compound on the edge of the Capitol, far away from the Imperial Palace. Upon closing the door behind her, Karin with her back to the door, immediately sunk to the floor while holding her head.

"Oh sweet lord Ryujin is gonna be pissed, that old fuck was sposed to live longer than both of us" she said while rubbing her temples before standing up."Oh well might as well do this now, wouldn't do us any good putting this off" said the colonel as she started to make her way to the training grounds of her and her husband's compound which was a large dome shaped structure just outside the main house.

When she found him she saw that he was situated at the edge of a raised platform with his lower body tied to it and upper body slightly hanging off of the edge while he was in the middle of doing a set of sit-ups. As soon as Karin entered the compound Ryujin had detected her presence but choose not to acknowledge her at this time thinking she came here to train as well. Ryujin had physically changed very little in his thirty years of military service. Now 46 the only physical changes he had in his appearance was that he was now slightly more muscular, now weighing 220 pounds, his facial hair had grown in as he now had a full beard about a third of an inch in length, and his brown hair had now begun to gray in a few areas but was only slightly noticeable, with him currently only wearing his pants boots and gloves. While Karin herself, now 26, hadn't changed at all except that her hair was now a few inches longer, now reaching her butt. When she entered the compound through the huge double doors, closing them behind her, she was about fifty feet from Ryujin, standing there she waited for her husband to acknowledge her presence. After waiting for a few moments, realizing that he wasn't going to acknowledge her, Karin, with a slightly irritated expression on her face, started to make her way to her the platform that her husband was currently training on. Upon reaching the 15 foot tall platform and after the Imperial Colonel leapt from the floor to the top of it in a single bound, forgoing the stairs, and with her arms folded under her breast she walked up to her husband who was still not paying her any attention. Ryujin had of course sensed her presence the moment she entered but after that he continued to focus on his sit-ups assuming she had started training. After a few seconds, though, a frustrated Karin angrily plopped down on Ryujin's lap with a loud thud before she spoke.

"Hey, how are you dear, you must have something you want to tell me since you've come to the training room at such an early hour".Ryujin only now halting his sit-ups, still not overly phased by his wife splashing unto his lap, spoke up.

"Heavens woman give me a break will ya, I thought you came here to train, I'm sorry for ignoring you but that was a kiiilller workout, now I have to know the reason why you decided to stopped it." said the Great General as he sat up and wrapped his arms around his wife's slender waist.

"First off the only thing I do this early in the morning is you, you're the only insane fuck I know that's getting up this early to train." Karin said as she draped her arms over Ryujin's chiseled shoulders.

"Oh so that's why you're here, sweet lord, we just did it before we went to sleep which was like four hours ago" he said while looking at a watch on his wrist that wasn't there.

"Dammit you are one insatiable cunt" Ryujin said before Karin give him a quick punch to the ribs which was more of an annoyance than anything to Ryujin.

Karin snickered before she gave her response.

"Jin you know me well enough to know when I'm in the mood..." she said suggestively while licking her upper lip slowly.

 _"God I hate it when you do that",_ Ryujin thought to himself as he shifted himself under his wife a little so she wouldn't know the effect she was having on him currently.

"For starters my clothes are still on" she said with a wink.

With that statement Ryujin only slightly disappointed, spoke up.

"Well if you're not here to train, and if you're not here for an early morning plowing session why in hell are bothering me, I'm not this devastatingly strong by happenstance ya know" Ryujin ranted.

"Believe me you know no one knows that better than me, the only other person that may know that fact as well as you and I just died which is why I came here, to tell you that" Karin said as her playful expression turned a bit more serious.

Ryujin, taking a few moments to realize just what his wife had just said spoke as his eyes widened with shock.

"WHAT that old fucker was supposed to live longer than both of us he's the fucking ruler and he was in great health how in the hell did he die" said Ryujin.

"I was told he had a heart attack and died in his sleep this morning" Karin said not looking her husband in the eyes.

"Well then, Karin, you do realize what this means right, you know I'm done right" stated Ryujin.

Karin with a puzzled expression on her face spoke "Done!, what the hell do you mean you're done, you being done could mean literally a thousand things, explain" she said annoyed.

"Alright I'm gonna make sure that I'm perfectly clear with you on this, as of this moment I am no longer a member of the Man Imperial Military" Ryujin stated causing Karin to uncharacteristically gasp in surprise before she stood up from her position on his lap.

"You CANT be fucking serious where is you're pride as a warrior you do realize that you're the fucking Great General of the Entire god damn Military, that's the second most powerful man of the free world and you're just gonna quit and leave all of that behind." Karin said angrily with her hands on her hips.

With that Ryujin unstrapped himself from his training apparatus and stood up meeting his wife's gaze before he spoke "You're goddamn right I am, have you at all thought about this situation, because if you did you'd wouldn't be questioning me right now" said an annoyed Ryujin.

Karin while raising an eyebrow, puzzled said "What are you getting at?"

"You know damn well what I'm saying here Karin, Shinra is dead who do you think we'll be serving" asked Ryujin.

At those words Karin's eyes widened as she realized just what Ryujin was getting at,

"We'll be serving that whiny little bitch Shinji and even worse there's that fat bastard Chancellor Honest who's Shinji's personal boot licker imagine the power he's gonna have now that Shinra is dead" he said

The two men that Ryujin was referring too were Prince Shinji and Chancellor Dong Honest, two men that both the Colonel and Great General absolutely despised. Prince Shinji was the sole heir to the Man Imperial Throne as the only child of Emperor Shinra. Despite Shinra being both one of the Empire's greatest Emperors and one of its greatest warriors in history his son had been nothing like his father. Where his father felt that commoners were the backbone of society and should be supported by the wealthy Shinji had thought commoners were weak, a leech off the wealthy, and should be eliminated. Where his father had been a honorable and just warrior in peak physical condition his whole life Shinji had been a conniving and inequitable coward that was also quite gluttonous. The cause for this deep contrast between father and son was the weakness in kindness that Emperor Shinra had for his son. From the time he was born Shinra had always allowed his son to be his own man not wanting his son to have the burden of living up to his expectations. Doing so and giving Shinji all the privileges and spoils of being a Prince caused Shinji to grow into a selfish and greedy despot a fact that Shinra had been oblivious to. Dong Honest had also been a man of ill ripute, with him having been born into nobility. Having been a politician who came to prominence through all sorts of underhanded means including treachery and bribery. This was made worse by the fact that he had been a childhood friend of Shinji's and was made Chancellor at Shinji's urging to his father. Under the nose of the Emperor the two had filled the Imperial Court with rampant corruption earning the ire of a good number of high ranking Imperial Officers including the two held in the highest regard.

"But you and I both owe are loyalty to Shinra" Karin said continuing their argument "If it hadn't been for him we might not have ever met" Karin pleaded.

"True as that may be we may have still found eachother without Shinra and besides, that loyalty died right along with him, I'd die before I'd spend a second wasting my god given talent as a warrior, that I work my ass off to maintain, serving either of those fat lazy fucks" said Ryujin angrily.

"Well then what will you do then, I really want to hear what you're plan is then Ryu, do you plan to start a revolution?" Karin said while licking her lips and salavating and the thought of her first real fight in ages.

"Fuck no woman are you crazy?" Ryujin stated as Karin's expression darkened. "I Haven't the time, energy or inclination to start a revolution."

"But you definitely need to have the power" Karin interjected.

"SSSOO, still that would mean I'd have to build an army of worthy soldiers who would be more loyal to me than either of those fat fucks." stated Ryujin before Karin interjected again.

"Surely that can't be too hard, you're far and away the strongest warrior of the army, nearly its entirety would lay their lives down for you without a seconds notice" she said.

"You're right most of the army would, but as you know that's because most of the army is younger lower ranking soldiers who revere me and I don't know if you know this but EVERY high ranking warrior hates my guts and would kill me if ever given the opportunity" said Ryujin.

This was a fact that to an extent Karin had known, she knew that most high ranking officers hated Ryujin, this was due in part because through money, sex, drugs, power or some combination of the four Chancellor Honest and or Prince Shinra had coercerd a good number of Imperial Officers' undying loyalty out of them, but she also knew of two warriors in particular that were far too prideful to ever be swayed by the two greedy men.

"What about General Budo or General Yamamoto other than you those are the two strongest warriors in the army and both are far too prideful to ever be one of those two's personal bitch aren't they? Karin stated half asking.

"Yeah you're probably right both of those two do have way too much pride to ever sell their souls to Honest or Shinji, but both of them have their own reasons as to why they would never join me" Ryujin stated.

"...and they are?" asked Karin.

"Well first off both of those bastards are extremely loyal to the Empire itself, to the extreme fact that I dont think it would matter to them at all what slime ball is in charge of the empire, they both would blindly fight for it til there dying breaths..." Ryujin stated.

Ryujin's assumption about the two generals had been very accurate, indeed both generals were highly loyal to the Imperial Banner itself and would proudly serve the Emperor no matter how vile that person was. General Jinpachi Yamamoto had been a long standing veteran of the Imperial Army already having ten years of service under his name and having attained the title of General by the time Ryujin had joined the army. In his years of service before Ryujin's enlisting General Yamamoto had gained considerable prestige as one of, if not the, strongest warriors in the Empire. Being of Noble blood in addition to being born and raised in Central City, the Capitol of the Empire Yamamoto was highly popular amongst both the Military and Politicians so much so that he was the Army's defacto trainer having been entrusted with training nearly every notable warrior of the empire to walk into the army during his tenure despite being one of the rare examples in the Empire's history of a soldier being a general without an Imperial Arms, due to him never being able to sync with one. Upon Ryujin's entrance into the Imperial Army General Yamamoto, sensing the incredible potential Ryujin had, offered Ryujin to become his main disciple, something that was considered a great honor as Yamamoto would only train the Empire's strongest young warriors, with him seeing it as a way to give back to his beloved home nation. Ryujin, however not so respectfully declined the elder warrior's offer stating that the training his father gave him as he was raised was all the training he needed. This led to an immediate dislike between the two which was made worse when the previous Great General passed away and Ryujin was chosen over Yamamoto as the new Great General due to his strength and closeness with Emperor Shinra. All of this and the fact that both Yamamoto and Ryujin both knew that Ryujin was the strongest led Yamamoto's extreme hatred of Ryujin. The other powerful subordinate of Ryujin that despised him and would never form an alliance with was the young General Raijin Budo. Like General Yamamoto before him, General Budo was also a very proud born and raised native of the Empire. Like Ryujin, Budo joined the Military at the minimum age requirement as well as raising through military ranks in a relatively short period of time. General Yamamoto, upon meeting Budo, saw great potential in him and immediately took him under his wing, training and fighting with the already very powerful young warrior. Budo graciously accepted the elder General's apprenticeship having, since his childhood, revered and held him in high regard viewing him as legendary and a model as to how a prideful and powerful warrior should serve his kingdom. Being General Yamamoto's most prized pupil also led Budo to hate Ryujin more then he had upon joining the military. This was made worse due to both the fact that Ryujin was always harsh on newer recruits, and Budo was no exception despite his unnatural strength, and the fact the Budo felt, like his master, that Ryujin was highly unworthy of his high prestige and that he was someone completely unfit to lead the Military. Under Yamamoto's tutelage Budo's already potent strength grew rapidly, so much so that within a few years of his entrance into the Military, not only had he risen to the rank of General being the second youngest ever to do do behind Ryujin, he also synced with and was granted by both General Yamamoto and Emperor Shinra the powerful Imperial Arm, Adramelech: Thunder God's Rage. One of the Empire's most devastating Imperial Arms, Adramelech took the form of two large golden gauntlets that granted the user the ability to manipulate and create electricity in the form of lightning. Armed with Adramelech especially Budo had almost easily surpassed Yamamoto's strength leading to some citizens and civilians to believe that Budo had equaled or even surpassed Ryujin and his Sieshintama. Ryujin however, with the Pachea's natural limited ability to "sense" others' strength to an extent, could tell that he still bested the young General in terms of strength.

Back to Ryujin and Karin, "...plus they also both hate me for not being such the suckers for the Empire that they are" said Ryujin.

Karin, finally making up her mind that she had lost this battle decided to go another route. " Well if you're not rebelling against the Empire and you're not going to stay in the Empire, then just what in the hell are you planning on doing you do know neither Shinji or Honest would never let you leave without you first surrendering Seishintama are you really going to part with your Imperial Arms after all these years and battles you have been through" pleaded Karin.

"Once again fuck no, me and this sword have been through far too much shit for me to EVER part with it, this sword is mines now" said Ryujin.

"Then you must plan on fighting them then because both of them would probably kill you before they'd let a warrior like you even leave the Empire let alone with one of its most powerful weapons" Karin declared.

"Bitches can try, but I'm sure we both know they don't have what it takes to stop me from doing anything I want much less skipping this decaying kingdom" Ryujin stated.

"Then what do you plan on doing, running from them the rest of your life, that doesn't sound like the man I married at all" Karin said as she once again folded her arms right below her breast, visibly upset.

"Please, don't get the panties that you don't wear in a bundle, of course that's not what I'm doing, you think my balls dropped off or something, I haven't found the being that even capable of making think about running, it's damn sure not Honest, Shinji or whatever soldiers that those two even think could fuck with me, I'm going back home to dad's farm, now if they can find me on a random farm in the middle of nowhere they deserve to have Seishintama even though there not going to get it back... EVER, I'll die before I'd let that happen, we've been through far too much, but if they want me and this sword there gonna have to find me and I won't make it easy on them" exclaimed Ryujin.

"So your just gonna spend the rest of your life living like a peasant, wasting away as you march towards your own death" Karin pleaded hoping she would win this argument.

"Well when you put it like that it sounds horrible but yeah that's exactly what I'm going to do, anything is better than going the rest of my life being Honest and Shinji's bitch I'd rather die, and yes I know that if I wanted to I could probably take over and rule this empire if I wanted to with my strength alone let alone with your's and the few allies I do have but..." Ryujin said as he grabbed Karin's arms and took her hands into his "you have to understand all that I ever wanted to do with my life was fight and become the world's strongest warrior and I have dedicated the last thirty years of my life doing just that, now that I have accomplished what I set out to do in life and that the only leader worthy enough of me serving under has died, I just want to spend the remainder of my life enjoying it with my wife" Ryujin said looking deep into her eyes.

With a sigh Karin broke eye contact with Ryujin as she stared towards the ground deep in thought. She, just like her husband detested both Honest and Shinji also feeling that they were both repugnant fat bastards that were completely unworthy of there high nobility, also not being able to see herself as one of there subordinates. However, unlike her husband she still had the will to fight and actually wanted to conquer the empire along with Ryujin but she also knew how desperately he didn't want to, so she made up her mind on what she was going to do. As she returned her gaze to her husband's eyes she gently squoze her husbands hands before speaking up.

"Ryujin I am your wife when I married you I swore to follow you on whatever journey in life you would take because all that I ever wanted in life was to be in love with the world's strongest warrior, you are everything that I ever wanted and I will follow you to the ends of the world" she said as she placed her palm upon the back of his head and began to stroke his long brown hair.

"God could not have made you anymore perfect than you are" Ryujin said as the two then shared a long and passionate kiss.

After a while Karin broke the kiss and embrace with her husband before speaking again as she began to circle Ryujin's chest with her index finger. "...But there is one thing that I do want to do since you're forcing me into early retirement" said Karin as she then put a bright smile on her prompted Ryujin to raise an eyebrow at his wife's words and demeanor.

"Okay... what?" He said nervously.

Karin, with her eyes closed and her face turned from Ryujin, slowly spoke

"I want..." she said before opening her eyes and turning towards her husband with the same bright smile on her face and continuing

"...to bear your children" she said while blushing.

Upon hearing his wife Ryujin nearly collapsed from the shear shock of what she just said. He was in shock not from his wife suggesting she wanted children, as they both wanted to have children for there own separate reasons, but the fact that she apparently wanted them now.

"Kids!?... now, you want to have children now, you're only 26, I thought you would've wanted to enjoy life first" said Ryujin.

"Oh I will, since my days as a warrior are over I want nothing more than to have your children and raise them do be every bit the powerful warrior that their father is, hell, maybe even stronger, and perhaps one day they'll be the ones conquer this empire" stated Karin.

"But you and I both know that having a child could kill you, you might not even be around to see it, and there's a very small chance that are child may not have a warrior's heart" pleaded Ryujin.

Karin while putting an annoyed expression on her face said "Oh, there's zero fucking chance of that happening, our child is going to be using my internal organs as punching bags, it's father is the world's strongest warrior it's mother is the world's strongest female, it doesn't matter if I can have only one child or ten before having them kills me they're going to be the strongest warriors this world has ever seen."

Ryujin, hearing the tone his wife was speaking in, could tell how determined she was in this, in reality he wanted children just as bad as she did to insure that his strength and his legacy would live long past his death, but he also knew that her chances of living through childbirth were low. In Ryujin's life, through all the prestige he had earned in life, Karin had been the best thing to happen to him and he severely did not want to lose her at least not without a fight.

Resolving himself Ryujin embraced his wife before saying "Karin the day I met you five years ago was the best thing to happen to me in my life, I love you, more than I could ever love fighting, I don't want to lose you" he pleaded.

Karin, returning her husband's gaze, said while placing her hand in his cheek "Don't do that, don't write me off like that, I could survive, and besides, there is no greater expression of love than sharing a child..." she said before slightly seperating from Ryujin to look him deep in his eyes before continuing while holding on to both of his hands,

"Please Ryujin you have to allow me to do this there is nothing I ever wanted more in my life than to have your children, to be the mother of the world's most powerful warriors, and I want to do it now so that by chance at least one of us will live to see them through" she said as she began to slightly tear up.

Ryujin, upon seeing Karin's face knew that for one of the few times in his life, all being via Karin, that he had lost this fight. Regardless of whether her tears were genuine of forced, as she had been known to do especially when dealing with something she really wanted out of Ryujin, they both knew that whenever Karin was saddened and or shed a tear she could get Ryujin to do just about anything she wanted out of him. This was because Ryujin could not deal with himself, ever, being the cause of any pain his wife went through, other than their training sessions where she welcomed it, she was his treasure and he only wanted to see her happy. So whenever she shed a tear or looked close to doing so he would do anything to get her to smile again. Resolving himself again now realizing that he should enjoy every moment he would have left with this wonderful woman, Ryujin gave Karin another passionate kiss and embrace as if this would be the last time he'd do so before letting her go and saying.

"Are child will be unstoppable."

This prompted Karin to let out a high pitched squeal before hugging her husband and giving him a quick peck oun the cheek. Karin then grabbed her husband by the wrist while saying.

"Come with me".

To which Ryujin then asked "Whoa, whoa hold on where are you taking me?" as she continued to pull on him.

"No time like the present to get started" said Karin.

"But wait! I'm in the middle of training you gotta gimme a sec" Ryujin pleaded.

"Does it look like give I give a fuck?" she asked.

"It actually looks like you're about to give one to me but that's besides the point, can't you just give me one second you insatiable whore" he answered.

"One" was all Karin said as she continued to drag her husband to their bed chambers.

"Ahhh dammit" was all Ryujin could say while he was being dragged as he had now conceded this small battle with Karin and began mentally preparing himself for the assault his wife was most certainly about to unleash upon him.

* * *

One week after the passing of The Great Emperor Shinra his funeral was held. Unlike most Emperors of the time Shinra had willed his funeral to be available to the all citizens of the world. Due to the immense popularity of Shinra his funeral had to be held at the Empire's Battle Arena, as opposed to the Holy Imperial Church, to accommodate the mass of people, from not just the Empire but the entirety of visitors from allied nations, all wanting to pay their final respects to the late Emperor. The Empire's Battle Arena was a massive multipurpose sports stadium resting in the heart of the Empire. It was mainly used as an arena for Olympic Games, massive imperially funded fighting tournaments and for large public assemblies like this one. Every Imperial soldier that was stationed in or around Central City regardless of rank was required to attend in uniform. Ryujin and Karin both were in attendance reluctantly. The only reason that the two high ranking officers had not already left the Empire was because Ryujin had wanted to pay his respects to one of the only true friends he had in his life, as the two were already fully prepared to leave that night. Ryujin was wearing a traditional Imperial Military uniform and hat with his Great General Jacket worn outside his uniform held together by a metal clasp around the collar. Karin for her part also wore her standard uniform however she opted, as a lot of female imperial soldiers had done, to wear a skirt instead of pants with her military boots stopping just below her knees. The Emperor's funeral, as expected, had filled the Battle Arena to max capacity with floor seats being installed for the event as Shinra's body was displayed in the center of the colossal stadium. The Great Emperor had chosen to be buried in his battle armor in addition to his Imperial robe with his scepter in one hand and his prized claymore in the other. With the exception of a good portion of the more battle hardened veterans of the Military and a few politicians it seemed the entire stadium wept for the late Emperor. This was not lost on Karin and Ryujin, both of whom were genuinely moved by the entire proceedings. Although neither of them shed a tear for the Emperor both had a mountain of respect for him. Not just for being the one to bring them together, but also for being a great ruler who never saw himself as being more important than any single individual of his empire, a large reason as to why he had spent such a large portion of his life on the front lines of battle. Shinra had willed that his funeral should be a celebration of his life as a warrior not a ruler as he saw himself as a warrior for his people rather than a ruler of them. After the legendary Emperor was laid to rest the now Emperor Shinji called for a private meeting between himself, Chancellor Honest, Ryujin, General Yamamoto, General Budo, and Chancellor Honest's most loyal and powerful personal bodyguards Generals Viktor Wallace and Markus Pulpet. Both of these particular General's were born outside the Empire to separate Barbarian clans in which they both had fought their way to the position of clan chiefs. Honest had discovered these two powerful warriors and there respected clans on one of his many crusades across the land. Upon finding each of them Honest offered each chief and their respective clans vast spoils in return for their undying loyalty to him, to which both chiefs gleefully excepted for several reasons. Among them being that both of their respected clans were on the verge of revolt due to their poor living conditions with their only sustenance being from pillaging villages who were just as poverty stricken as them. As the two joined the empire a vast amount of each clans warriors joined the Imperial Military with the rest being given far better living conditions then they had before joining the Empire. As time passed it wasn't long before both Viktor and Markus were made Generals and granted the incredibly powerful imperial arms of Carnage Incarnate: Grand Chariot, going to Viktor and Demon Armor: Incursio which went to Markus. Grand Chariot and its prototype Incursio were both full body armor type Arms which were both unlocked by key swords. These swords were crafted from the still living flesh of the legendary ultra-class danger beast the Tyrant. The Tyrant had been an extremely powerful creature that lived during the time when the world was ruled by danger beast. It had been hunted by both the Fire Dragons and the Ice Demons simply as a way to test their strength by defeating it. The Tyrant, however due its ability to sense danger to itself and its ability to be able to adapt to any environment, no matter how harsh, it had managed to evade the two unstoppable forces. The Tyrant was, however, not able to evade humans for long especially with their superior tracking skills and with the advant of their Imperial Arms, as Emperor Kanpeki had ordered for the creatures hide to be used to create more Imperial Arms. Both Incursio and Grand Chariot granted their user's increased speed, strength, reflexes, and durability among other abilities making the two already formidable General's that more deadly. As strong as the two barbarian generals were even with their Imperial Arms they still, however, weren't as strong as Ryujin or Generals Yamamoto or Budo and were only slightly stronger than Karin but due to their immense loyalty to Chancellor Honest they were held in the highest regard by both Honest and Shinra nonetheless. This meeting was called to discuss the new policies that Emperor Shinji was going to be wasting little time enacting. First of which was creating thr position of Prime Minister and naming Chancellor Honest the first. This was done because Shinji felt that the military held too much power and jurisdiction, he created this office in order to give a politician, who Shinra believed we're best for leading people, the most power in the Empire second only to the Emperor. After several hours of private conversations the new Emperor released all of his subordinates with Ryujin and Karin heading directly for their living quarters with intentions on leaving the Empire that very night with it being strengthened by the meeting they had just left. Upon arriving to their shared compound, both Karin and Ryujin, had immediately began to pack their respected belongings onto their horses as they continued to converse about the meeting they just left.

"So Ryu are you really sure that you don't want to revolt I'm sure you and I can do it if we had just a little bit of time I'm sure millions would want to fight for us once Shinji and Honest get going" Karin said while she was packing her things.

"Absolutely not, now I have no doubt that we could assemble a resistance in the large thousands, but I have no desire, or energy to go through the whole process of gathering, training, and rallying a large sum of people anymore I just wanna enjoy life with you now" said Ryujin.

"Oh well it was well worth a shot, the only reason why I want to is because I really want to personally kill both of those fat bastards if they think for one second that me or especially you are going to be their unconditional bitch" Karin stated angrily as she punched the closest wall to her, destroying it.

Upon seeing the destruction that his wife had just caused, Ryujin simply smiled and shrugged his shoulders before saying "Oh well, which brings me to the next point I wanted to bring up, with all these new laws that those bastards are enacting it's gonna turn into a real shit storm around the Empire in a real hurry, and both Budo and Yamamoto are both too stupid, naive and such blind followers of this nation to see that this is gonna turn every wise citizen against them and in turn this place into a shithole, hell, it's not there fault that they have such blind faith in the Empire that they can't see that both Honest and Shinji have thier Masters Degree's in scatology, their so full of shit" stated Ryujin.

"What the hell do you mean it's not their fault they could revolt too, surely they see how much of useless fucks those two are and they're certainly strong enough" Karin stated annoyed.

"Again I know the type of warriors they are, the day those two joined the Military they took an oath ,bound by honor and their collective love of the Empire, to loyally serve the Imperial Throne no matter what for the rest of their lives, hell, think about it, even you know if you truly love something like how they love this Empire you would take it any way you can get it too" stated Ryujin.

With an annoyed grunt Karin punched another nearby wall which nearly caused it to collapse putting a hole bigger than her body in it. Ryujin noticing this and his wife's frustration sighed before he spoke while shaking his head.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk, all because you want to kill Honest and Shinra that bad, geez how much do you hate them". asked Ryujin.

"More than you can imagine, I hate weak people especially the weak who use the strong, and the strong who let themselves be used by the weak, which is even worse, I'm floored this doesn't make you want to kill them as well" stated Karin, annoyed.

"Who in the hell said I don't want to kill them, if I could kill them and just go back to my life I would, but if I did that I'd have to take on all the responsibility that comes with killing one of them, even worse a lot of people would die that don't deserve it, now I know a lot of people will die anyway but that blood wouldn't have be on my hands" stated Ryujin.

With a audible sigh Karin, knowing her husband's resolve thoroughly, with it being a large reason why she loved him so much, relented as the couple continued to pack their belongings and within a few hours the two had departed Central City both with great hope and optimism for the next chapter of their lives. As they reached a distance just far enough where they could see the entirety of the massive fortress city they both looked back one last time as Karin spoke.

"So many great fights I had here, this place will never be the same without Shinra, it's really sad if you think about, this is the last time people will love this Empire, soon it's gonna be a such an abominable place that everybody is gonna absolutely detest, I'm really am going to miss it" stated Karin as she began to get a little emotional.

With this Ryujin walked up behind his wife wrapping his arms around her waist and resting his chin upon her shoulder before saying, as his wife continued to gaze at the beautiful site of Central City at night,

"Honestly, I'm gonna miss it too, it was on this very hill that we're standing on now where, twenty years ago, a bright young warrior walked into this empire with the intention of becoming the strongest warrior it had ever seen, not only did that young man accomplish every thing he set out to do but he also met the love of his life and the "Baddest bitch walking God's green earth" Ryujin said which prompted Karin to lightly elbow him in the ribs.

Karin hated to be called the nickname she had made for herself before she joined the Imperial Army, when she was just a vagabond assassin for hire. From the time she was thirteen until she joined the military she had taken on countless assassination missions killing some of the most powerful beings both affiliated and not affiliated with the Empire and during all these missions she never once encountered a woman that was a challenge for her prompting her to create her nickname. She now, however, hated that nickname feeling she had matured a lot since then and that it was a very childish and silly nickname for her now.

"You know I hate that name its sounds like something a twelve year old would call themselves" Karin said as she nuzzled her face closer to Ryujin's.

"I always thought that was the cutest name plus it reminds me of the little girl that instantly stole my heart" said Ryujin.

Karin absolutely loved it when Ryujin talked to her like this it was one reason why she loved him so much, of course if anyone else tried to talk to her like that she would snap their neck, but only her husband could get to her like this.

"This may very well be the last time we see this place" Karin said as she continued to embrace her husband.

"Very true but just think of it like this if we ever do see this place again it will be as the parents of this Empire's future king" Ryujin said as he kissed his wife's cheek.

"Or Queen" Karin said slightly annoyed while lightly punching his arm.

"Or Queen" Ryujin said confirming his error.

"Better" she said while licking the area she struck.

"I love you so much" said Karin.

"Not as much as I love you" replied Ryujin.

The two warriors in love continued to look at the Empire that they were leaving for a few more moments before passionately sharing a kiss as they then finally departed The Man Empire... for now.

* * *

Elsewhere, far north of the Man Empire in a small village located in the sub arctic climate of the Northern Continent, where the long lost tribe of the Partas Clan had currently settled. After centuries of nomadic migration between several locations The Partas clan had found themselves, ironically enough, settled for several decades in their ancestral homeland of the Northern Continent. The Tribe, once being a nation of several thousand people had dwindled down over time to now being a little over a hundred. The Partas, while all wearing black bandanas with their tribal symbol upon it, had still carried their long standing tradition of being the world's best and most merciless hunters. In fact, killing the many vicious and powerful species of Danger Beast that occupied the Northern Continent and using their meat for food and hides and bones for clothing, weapons and other materials were their main resources for supporting themselves. The Partas clan were currently being lead by thier powerful leader the warrior Chief, Chief Lärs Eisläin, the modern day descendant of the Partas Chief who assisted in the formation of the Man Empire ten centuries beforehand thus being the one whom inherited the ancient urn that had long been the treasure of their clan, which contained one of the most powerful Imperial Arms, Demon's Extract. Despite there being several formidable warriors over the course of the millennium the Partas could never find a warrior worthy enough to wield the weapons awesome power with every strong warrior they deemed worthy immediately losing their mind as they went into a seizure like state before killing themselves immediately after drinking from the urn. Although Lärs was the direct descendant of the great Partas Chief it wasn't the reason how he had attained the position of chief. This was due to the entire Partas Clan's belief that the strong survive and the weak die, a credo they had lived by for the entirety of their existence. For as long as they had been an organized tribe they had felt that if their leader was weak it meant that the entire clan was weak therefore the clan would only allowed their strongest warrior to lead. The previous chief had been Lärs' father and upon his death Lärs laid claim to the title but however was opposed by several Partas Warriors whom he quickly dispatched resulting in some of their deaths. Not long after Lärs' ascension to the title of chief his wife birthed him a son in which he named Malakëth. It wasn't long before Lärs could noticed that his son possessed great potential as a warrior so much so that Lärs thought that it wouldn't be long before he would surpass him as well as his feeling that Malakëth may be the one worthy enough to wield Demon's Extract. In addition to the great potential that Lärs saw out of Malakëth he also saw just as much potential if not more in the generation of Partas Tribals born alongside his son. Due to this and Lärs wanting the title of Partas Chief to be continued through his bloodline, Malakëth was raised very brutally under his father rigorous training. Because of this Malakëth grew up with extreme resentment towards his father, highly anticipating the day that he would have the strength to kill his tormentor. After spending his whole life being brutally abused by his father, at the age of sixteen, Malakëth would challenge his father for the title of Clan Chief. After a long and viscous battle which lasted several hours and was spectated upon by nearly the entire Partas Clan Malakëth was just barely able to defeat his father in battle. As Lärs lay defeated and dying he told his battered, beaten and exhausted son that he was too weak which is why he is dying and that Malakëth was the strongest Partas and that the clan was his now and, just as Lärs drew in his last breath, he told his son that he loved him at that this was the proudest moment of his life with it. As his father slowly passed away Malakëth reached down and began to remove the gold medallion affixed to a gold chain that was hanging from Lärs' neck. This gold medallion with a black dot carved into the middle with four black lines almost connecting the dots in a cross shaped pattern going to the edges of the medallion going from the top, bottom, left, and right signified the title of chief of the Partas Clan.

"You're right you are dead now, Father, because you were weak and I am strong and now I will lead are people to heights you could never lead then to, heights they have never seen and I will find a user for Demon's Extract even if it's me and with it we will reclaim our position as the strongest clan of warriors on Earth" Malakëth stated as he removed the chain from around his father's neck.

After a few moments the man known as Lärs Eisläin had finally died with a very proud smile on his face. Malakëth, who was knelt by his father's side unil the moment he passed away rose before saying to his people.

"With this I am now your new chief if there is anyone that thinks they will be a better chief than I step forward now but be warned because I'm already injured now I will not hold back and won't hesitate to kill you" Malakëth said as he then dropped into a fighting stance awaiting anyone's challenge.

After a few moments of waiting Malakëth was convinced that there wasn't a challenge forthcoming thus prompting him to be at ease before he spoke up and commanded his people to give his father a very dignified burial befitting a king. Although Malakëth had hated his father and thought that he was a weakling he did respect Lärs for being one of the longest tenured Partas Chiefs in their history as well as, through his training, helping Malakëth become, in his opinion, far and away the strongest Partas Clan Member in history. As members of the clan began to gather their former chief's body to begin to prepare it for burial there were two Partas Clan members that had observed and studied the devastating battle between Lärs and Malakëth intensely amongst the crowd of tribals that had gathered to spectate this decisive battle. These two Partas clan members were Beriäle Bloodriver, a powerful Partas warrior who had challenged a young Lärs for the title of Chief many years before with him only barely losing to Lärs and his daughter, Esdeath, a young fourteen year old warrior prodigy. For as long as Esdeath could remember she loved fighting and wanted to be the world's strongest warrior just as her father, still resentful of Lärs, had always wanted her to be but not to a greater extent than her. From the time Esdeath could walk and talk she had been willingly trained rigorously with one purpose in mind, to become Village Chief. As Esdeath was brought up under her father's tutelage she would train non stop on most days only stopping for sustenance and rest with her original intent being to challenge Lärs. It, however, wasn't long before both she and her father realized the enormous potential of Malakëth delaying their plans. This was due to them both knowing that Malakëth hated his father, which was no secret, and that he would eventually take the title of chief from him. Thus, with her knowing that she'd eventually have to fight him at some point she decided she would continue to train until she was certain she could beat him which was the reason both she and her father watched this battle so intently. After the crowd that had gathered to watch the battle between both the former and now current Village Chiefs had dissipated Beriäle spoke to his daughter as they began to make their way back to their home.

"My dear daughter" He said sarcastically before continuing,

"You've waited almost you're entire life to view such awesome fighters in battle I'm floored that you have yet to say anything are you in that much awe of their power" said Beriäle.

Esdeath looked her father in the eye with a cold glare before speaking,

"No I was actually in deep thought thinking of how much of a lying piece of excrement you are" she stated calmly.

"Why what ever do you mean I think I've been as honest as I can about what you would have to go up against, what do you think I lied about?" he asked curiously.

"You told me that Lärs WAS only slightly stronger than you leading me to believe that I only had to become a bit stronger than you to become Chief" she stated slightly irritated.

"Wait a minute, I watched that fight just as you did and I can tell although a lot of time has passed me and Lärs are still close in strength he hasn't gotten a whole lot stronger and he was matching Malakëth blow for blow until the end so what are you talking about" said Beriäle.

"Oh yes you two weaklings are still very close in strength" she said referring to Beriäle and Lärs,

"But it just goes to show how weak you two are if you couldn't tell Malakëth was obviously holding back" She stated angrily.

"How in the world could you tell that I was studying that fight very closely, Malakëth sustained a lot of injuries and it looked as if Lärs could have killed him at several points during their fight how could he have been holding back?" asked a puzzled Beriäle.

"For some silly reason like maybe respect or even love, Malakëth was humbling his father that entire fight, you couldn't tell that the longer that fight lasted that Lärs was the only one that was becoming fatigued, that no matter how many injuries that they inflicted upon eachother that Lärs was the only one that was slowing down because of those injuries, please, that fight, if you even want to call it that, was over before it started. It was a complete farce, Malakëth toyed with his father, allowing him to believe he actually stood a chance against him. It's wasn't until it was clear that Lärs had given everything he had, trying to win this fight, that Malakëth finally put him out of his misery" Esdeath said finishing her long winded diatribe.

"My goodness" said Beriäle in shock at his daughters prowess before he continued,

"Well then if you're able to tell all of that do you know if you'll be able to defeat him?" Beriäle said questioning his daughter.

"You fool" she replied aggravated before continuing,

"I've already told you Malakëth was holding back that entire fight it is impossible for me to tell exactly how strong he is, the bastard, that's probably why he was so eager to fight anyone after killing his father" she said while balling her fist angrily.

"Well then my dear daughter if that is the case what do you plan to do about it?" he asked.

"What do I plan to do about it?" She questioned with a puzzled expression before continuing,

"You should know very well exactly what I am going to do, I am going to train myself, no matter long it takes, every day of my life, until I'm sure I have reached my peak and cannot get any stronger with only one goal in mind, to see the day where I'll have Malakëth groveling at my feet, begging to lick them" she said as she pounded her fist into her palm with a sadistic smile on her face.

"Well then" Beriäle said as he put a smile on his face,

"I only hope I live to see that day".

* * *

It had been just two weeks since the couple of Ryujin and Karin Nandeya had left their previous home of Central City in the Man Empire. After a long journey through several countries they had reached their destination of The farm built and owned by Ryujin's father. Upon their arrival at the long gated pathway leading to the main house the two Pachea Warriors dismounted their horses before Ryujin spoke up.

"My god, this place looks EXACTLY like I remember it, like, literally nothing has changed" Ryujin said while scratching the back of his head.

"So, this is the place where the world's strongest warrior was molded, you'd never guess that looking at it its just a normal old big house and farm" said Karin.

"Oh yeah, this is the place where the world's best ever was born and raised, now, the fact that this place isn't run down yet must mean that either that old fuck is still alive or he left this farm to someone to do that" he said as he began to scan the very large property in search of any signs of life.

After a few more minutes of searching Ryujin would find his father in a large field behind the main house of the farm tending to his field with a garden hoe in his hands. Upon seeing his father for the first time in over twenty years he put a slight smile on his face happy to see his father had not passed away yet before he turning to his wife.

"Karin, I haven't seen this old fuck in over twenty years, think you can chill here for a second, I think I should go and talk to him first before I spring you on him since its been so long" Ryujin asked of his wife.

"Of course, I understand completely go ahead and catch up with your father and I'll be right here" she said as she gave her husband a kiss before sitting down on a chair right next to the house,

"I'm sure he's missed you" she finished

"Yeah, we'll see about that" he said with a sarcastic laugh,

"Alright", Ryujin said as he clapped his hands together,

"Let's get this over with" said Ryujin as he continued to make his way to his father, who was working in the middle of the large field.

Ryujin's father was in the middle of sewing his crops with his back turned away from the house, Ryujin, and Karin as Ryujin made his toward his father's position. Ryujin was about forty feet from his father when his father noticed his presence. Wearing a pair of overalls with no under shirt, cowboy boots, farmer's gloves, and a straw hat with his shoulder length, mostly grayed, brown hair tied in a braided ponytail falling out with a red bandana with the Pachea symbol on the front wrapped around his hat with him still being in great shape with a chiseled physique even in his eighties, the elder Nandeya man immediately stopped his work upon noticing his son's presence before turning to him and leaning on his garden hoe leisurely as he waited on his son to close the distance between them. As Ryujin got within ten feet of his father he stopped as the two Pachea men stared at eachother for a few moments not saying a word. After a few more moments of the two men staring at eachother Ryujin picked up another garden hoe that his father had lying on the ground and began work on the fields just as father had been doing. It was only now that Ryujin's father had taken his gaze off Ryujin as he himself continued to work on his field. After a few more moments of silence between the two men with the only sound being produced by either of them being the sound of their digging and sowing, Ryujin's father, was the first to break the silence.

"Ah my dear child, welcome back, now, thirty years ago, when we said our goodbyes to eachother, and you left here to pursue you're dream of being a ballet dancer I really thought It'd be the last time I'd have to see your monkey ass. So tell me, what brings you crawling back to you're old man's castle" asked Ryujin's father.

With him putting a smirk on his face Ryujin said "Hmph, after thirty years you'd think a decrepit old fuck like yourself would be happy to see his only progeny, oh well, I actually came back here to burn this heaping pile of shit to the ground" said Ryujin.

"Watch it boy" his father said before continuing,

"I may be old but I'll still whip your ass" he warned as he inched closer to his son getting in his face.

"Well bring it on old man, I'll kill you where you stand" Ryujin said dropping back into a fighting stance.

"Haa, I'd like to see you try, boy, because you're gonna have to" said the elder Nandeya before he let out a loud growl before he began a grappling match with his son.

The two Pachea men continued to grapple for several moments in a hug like embrace, with the ordeal not going unnoticed by Karin, who began to worry a little for both men's safety. After a few more moments of the father and son's grappling contest the two men halted there wrestling with eachother and, while still in a tie up, the two men gave eachother a genuine hug while laughing as they patted eachother upon the back with Karin being completely befuddled at the entire process.

Afterwords, Ryujin's father was the first to speak up, "My goodness boy" he said while holding his son at arms length.

"You were strong as all hell before you left and now you're a fucking monster, really, why in the hell ARE you back here I'm sure you could've conquered any place you ended up at" he said while patting Ryujin's shoulders approvingly,

"So what gives" his father finished.

Ryujin, while blushing put a goofy smile and nervous expression on his face while nervously scratching the back of his head, with him genuinely feeling like a kid all over again due to his father's glossing over him, and while still scratching the back of his head Ryujin replied to his father,

"Well dad, you know leading a bunch of people ain't really my thing, alls that I ever wanted to do was to become the world's strongest warrior and I accomplished that years ago, now I'm back because the only ruler that was worthy of me serving under died and I refuse to waste my talents serving under a weakling" declared the younger Pachea.

"Well I do remember that one of the last things I told you before you left was that you'll never find anyone thats in any real position of power that's worth a damn, I've seen it happen so many times in my old village where otherwise honest men got into a positions of power and then let themselves become currupt" stated the elder Nandeya.

"Yeah you were right about that one Pops, in all my traveling to all the different kingdoms and empires that I visited in this world, there was only one leader that wasn't a lying, backstabbing and or self serving piece of shit and that was Emperor Shinra Man of the Man Empire he was the only one that I could find that actually gave a damn about his people, plus he was a great warrior, me and him had shared the front lines of so many battles in our time" said Ryujin.

"Wait a minute, the Man Empire!, tell me you're bullshitting me son" asked Ryujin's father.

"No, why!?, What's wrong with the Man Empire" Ryujin questioned.

Ryujin's father responded to this with hysterical laughter which slightly annoyed his son before he continued,

"Nothing's wrong with the Man Empire, I just find it funny that of all the empires and kingdoms out there you chose to join the Military of the empire in which our people helped build" said the elder Nandeya while still chuckling.

"What!?, our ancestors helped build the Man Empire!, why didn't you tell me?, I could've sworn I told you that's where I was going" Ryujin exclaimed.

"No, you didn't say that's where you were going, because I definitely would have told you that...again because I'm sure I've told you about that before because it's how we got the urn, the only thing you said about where you were going when you left is that you where going where the strongest warriors were that wasn't the Man Empire when I was coming up so I couldn't assume it was then" responded the older Pachea.

"That was the kingdom that we got the urn from, wow!, that actually makes a lot of sense now, the urn is one of the two lost Imperial Arms that I read about, wow, I'm sure they want my ass alot for deserting them but, if the knew that I basically had a weapon that they thought had been lost to the ages for centuries, they'd really want to kill me" Ryujin stated.

"Lost to the ages" Ryujin's father exclaim before continuing,

"I can see how they'd think that, outside of us no one has ever heard of the Pachea clan" he said before his son interjected.

"Oh my God that's so true, throughout all of my time serving the Empire not a soul even the Emperor had ever heard of the Pachea clan, it's as if we never existed" said Ryujin.

"Wow" said the elder Nandeya while shaking his head before he continued,

"It has gotten that bad, to the point that, that entire Empire, in which our people helped found, aren't even mentioned in their history books, then how in the hell do they explain that their Empire was founded" he asked.

"All the ones that I read said that the Empire was founded by their first Emperor who led an army armed with Imperial Arms to victory over armies of incredibly powerful danger beast" replied Ryujin.

"The bitches" said the elder Pachea,

"Our ancestors would roll over in their graves if they knew that this was our legacy, oh well nothing we can do about it at least we still have the world's strongest warrior, right son" his father said as he patted him on the shoulder again.

"Goddamn right" said the younger Pachea blushing again at his father's adulation of him.

"By the way son who is this lovely young lady you have accompanying you, she wouldn't by any chance be my granddaughter would she?" he asked while pointing towards Karin.

This caused Ryujin to laugh very nervously while blushing again and putting his hand on the back of his head before he responded,

"No Dad, she's my wife" he said nervously before signalling his wife to come join them which she immediately started doing.

"WHAT THE HELL!" said his father in pure shock before he continued "I thought you and I were the last of are people you were able to find more of us, where?" his father asked.

"Me and her met in the Empire, Emperor Shinra actually is the one who introduced us" Ryujin said just as Karin had joined them.

"It's an honor to finally meet you father, I am Karin Retsugi Ryujin's wife" Karin said as she bowed to her father in law.

"No, no, no" Ryujin's father said as he gave her a genuine hug,

"The pleasure is all mine's, I had legitimately feared that Ryujin and I were the last of our people, I'm happy beyond words to see you, it gives me hope that their are more of us out there, so little lady where are you from" asked the old Nandeya.

"I'm from a village in the southern tropical part of the South Continent, my parents were both of Pachea blood and they didn't have me until they were both in their forties, just like Ryujin, my mother died when I was fourteen and my father followed her that same year and I've been on my own every since, my parents were both warriors and since as long as I can remember that's all I wanted to be so they trained me all my life to be one. Three years after my parents passed I joined the Man Imperial Military, I also feared that I was the last of my kind, it wasn't long, however, before I rose through the ranks of the Military and was introduced to Ryujin" she said as she grasped and locked Ryujin's fingers with hers before continuing,

"The happiest day of my life, and we've loved eachother every since" she said as she then shared a passionate kiss with her husband before they were separated by the handle of Ryujin's father's garden hoe.

"Sorry kids but that's where I'm gonna have to stop y'all" said Ryujin's father, "Although this union is, with no offense to you Ryujin, the proudest I have ever been as a man, I'm gonna have to ask you to keep your love explosions confined to you're own room please, I don't need to or wanna see all that imagery, but, seriously, Karin you said that your mother passed away when you where fourteen, right? That would mean that she didn't die giving birth to you, correct?" asked the senior Pachea.

"Yeah my mother had me and trained me a good portion of my childhood" Karin said a little puzzled.

"My dear daughter that is terrific news to me it gives me so much more hope for our people, now I know that we won't be of the last of our people because, as far as I know every other Pachea mother I knew of died in childbirth" said the elder Pachea.

Karin was just about to respond to that comment before she was cut of by the elder Pachea.

"Well, I'm pretty sure you kids are exhausted from that long ass trip from the Empire so go get your asses settled in, I just slaughtered a Black Mountain Ox last night so I'll...", Ryujin's father got out before his son cut him off.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, Mountain Ox, you still hunt?" He asked with a puzzled expression on his face.

"Uhhh yeah, why the fuck wouldn't I?" He replied mimicking his son's expression.

"Because A: You're a hundred, and B: You have a huge freaking farm, why in hell do you still hunt you could get yourself killed out there" replied an annoyed Ryujin.

"Well A: I grow a little tired of eating the same thing everyday, B: I'm 87, watch your damn mouth, and most importantly C: I do whatever the hell I want to do" his father responded also annoyed.

"Alright fine dad but at some point you're gonna have to start realizing you're getting old" said Ryujin.

"Okay, I'll do that when I'm dead, now, as I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted go and get yourselves settled while I get dinner going I'm sure you kids are bushed, I finally won't have so many leftovers, and Karin...,"

The elder Pachea said as he called to his daughter-in-law from his position at the door of the main house.

"Yes father" answered Karin.

"I'm sure there's something you want to tell my son so I'll let you kids go ahead and settle that" he said as he entered the house causing Ryujin to raise an eyebrow and Karin to blush a little and say

"Oh my God" with her hand over mouth.

The couple would stayed there for a few seconds before Ryujin spoke up,

"Charming guy isn't he?" He asked rhetorically.

"Well, I see where you get your anal retentiveness from, you guys act so much alike it's not even funny" said Karin.

"How dare you" Ryujin said annoyed,

"I'm not that much like that old fuck, I'm a warrior, he's a farmer, we're totally different"Ryujin said slightly frustrated.

"What ever you say dear but I promise you if I had closed my eyes at any point during you two's conversation I wouldn't have been able to tell who was which" she said while giggling.

"Tch, whatever" he said, slightly annoyed, before folding his arms and reporting,

"So, what is this thing that my dad said you ought to tell me" asked Ryujin.

"Well Ryu",

She said nervously having completely forgotten about what his father said, as she began to blush not be able to make eye contact with him, something that Ryujin immediately noticed so he grabbed his wife's chin gently and told her,

"It's okay Karin, what is it".

Looking deep into her husband's eyes and seeing the tender look he displayed in them gave Karin the confidence she needed as she continued.

"In about about nine months we're all gonna be meeting another member of our clan" said Karin.

This caused Ryujin, who immediately knew what she meant by that, to put a dumbfounded look on his face, as if he was stuck in deep thought. Ryujin remained like that for a few moments which worried Karin but right as she was about to say something she was interrupted by Ryujin literally jumping a hundred feet into the air whist shouting at the top of his lungs in excitement. Meanwhile inside the house, as Ryujin's father was preparing dinner with all the commotion going on outside did not go unnoticed to him which caused him to simply put a smile on his face and say the words,

"Called it" to himself.

Back outside as Ryujin landed from his jumping into the air he landed knee first with a thud that dented the soil before he started to pound the soil ecstaticly. Seeing Ryujin's outburst caused Karin to pinch the bridge of her nose in anguish as she thought to herself, _and now I'm gonna have two kids to worry about,_ before she put a grin on her face.

* * *

Elsewhere, Inside Central City, Man Empire.

"Yes Your Highness, you wished to see me",

Said General Yamamoto as he kneeled to the still newly minted Emperor Shinji in the Empire's throne room with a small contingency of the Military's highest ranking officers including, Generals Markus, Wallace, and Budo among a few others.

"Yes General Yamamoto I would like to know the progress of the search for Great General Ryujin and Colonel Retsugi" the Emperor said before he took a sip from his wine cup as he sat on his throne with a wine maiden to his right and the newly promoted Prime Minister Honest to his left.

"My apologies Your Majesty, but we have checked with everyone of our citizens and civilians, and checked with everyone of our outposts and no one has seen or heard from either of them" said the General.

"Interesting" he said as he stroke his beard and drank another sip before he continued,

"Therefore, Since it has been over two weeks since the Great General and Colonel Retsugi failed to report to their post, I have no choice but to assume that the two of them have abandoned their posts and are thus considered traitors to the Man Empire, a crime punishable by death" said the stern Emperor.

"From this moment on, both Ryujin Nandeya and Karin Retsugi, are hereby considered ememies to the Empire if any of you ever find either of them they are to be brought in immediately, dead or alive, to answer for thier crimes, is this understood" said The Emperor.

"Yes Your Highness" was then said across the room first said by General Yamamoto and then immediately followed by the rest of the Military personnel occupying the room.

"Another reason why I gathered you all here today was, due to the abandonment of Great General Ryujin, our great Military is in need of a new Great General, Prime Minister Honest I've gathered these men here because they are the most worthy in our Empire of the title of Great General, which one of these men would you recommend" said The Emperor.

"Of these men the one who is most worthy of this title is General Yamamoto" Honest said before continuing,

"For longer than any soldier in our great Empire's history General Yamamoto has been a highly loyal warrior for the Man Throne" he said now turning to Yamamoto.

"For over forty years there hasn't been a single warrior that has been as loyal, strong, brave and proud of his Empire as you therefore I recommend you for the position of Great General" said Honest.

"Thank you, Minister Honest" said the Emperor before turning to Yamamoto,

"General Yamamoto, please step forward" said Shinji as Yamamoto did as he was told before the Emperor continued,

"Due to the Prime Minister's high recommendation I shall offer you the position of Great General of the Imperial Military, should you choose to accept it, anf if not, which one of your contemparies do you recommend?" asked Emperor Shinji.

General Yamamoto, slightly surprised by this very sudden decision, was nonetheless prepared for it as he cleared his throat before he began speaking,

"Thank you Your Highness and Lord Honest for your recommendation I am both truly honored and proud that you think so highly of me, however I feel as though I must graciously decline your offer, for I feel that young General Budo is a much better candidate for the position of Great General. I feel as though he thoroughly represents every positive attribute you say have in addition to being much younger and stronger than I. I've seen alot of warriors come and go through our great Military, alot of which I myself have trained personally, and of all of those warriors Budo is the one that I've seen with the greatest potential, he could become a legendary Great General, unlike any before him" said the prideful General.

"Is that so" asked the Emperor rhetorically as he began to eye the young General while stroking his chin before continuing on,

"Well then, General Budo, please step forward" he said as the young General did as he was told and responded while bowing,

"Yes, Your Highness."

"After that rousing endorsement by General Yamamoto I now ask you, do you accept the position of Great General of the Man Imperial Military" asked The Emperor.

"Although I don't think of myself as being as worthy as General Yamamoto thinks I nonetheless will accept this offer and vow on my honor as a warrior that I will devote my entire life to become the greatest Great General our Empire has ever seen" said the young General boastfully.

"Then it is settled General Raijin Budo shall be named the next Great General of the Imperial Military, congratulations Great General Budo" said Emperor Shinji as he extended his hand towards the young warrior.

"Thank you Your Highness I promise you I will not let you down" said the new Great General as he shook the Emperor's hand.

"Oh I'm sure you won't General" replied the Emperor as he grabbed Budo's hand with his other hand intensifying their handsake before he continued "Now that that bit of business is taken care of, you gentlemen are all dismissed, I shall assemble the entire Imperial Military for the Ascension ceremony of Great General Budo which will be in the very near future, until then I'd like to bid all of of gentlemen farewell" said Shinji as he gestured with his hand for the Military personnel to leave.

"Yes Your Majesty",

They all said in unison as they slowly departed the throne room leaving the Emperor, the Prime Minister and the Prime Minister's personal guard of Generals Markus and Wallace.

"This is most disheartening indeed, we now know that both Nandeya and Retsugi have went AWOL, they were some of our strongest warriors, that will be a huge gap we need to fill" said Emperor Shinji.

"Making matters even worse is that at any point those two could try and lead a revolt against us" said General Markus.

"Are you sure that they could find enough allies where they could pose a threat to us Markus" asked General Wallace.

"Regardless of whether or not they can those two by themselves are far too much of a threat to ignore" said Honest.

"But Lord Honest" said the two General's before they were cut off by Prime Minister. "We need to reinforce our Military strength by going on another fierce recruitment campaign" said Honest.

"That is a brilliant plan Your Excellancy but may I make another suggestion" asked General Wallace.

"And what would that be General" said Honest.

"Well it appears to me that the youth of our nation's strength continues to grow at an alarming rate, perhaps stronger than they have ever been" said Wallace.

"Go on" Honest said, not letting on how intrigued he was.

"Well then, I suggest that we start an aggressive youth movement in our recruitment process" said General Wallace.

"What exactly do mean by that General Wallace" said Honest, now very interested into the General's proposal.

"I think we should start buying up orphans from all over the world and start, with parents consent of course, here and create a training program both public and private, for our youth to hone their bodies into perfect killing machine to where, by the time they come of age they will already be a step above the rest, what do think of that Your Excellancy" said a very prideful Wallace.

With a smile on his face Honest said "I think that is a splendid idea and that we should get started on that immediately what do you think Your Highness" he asked.

"I of course have no problem with that plan, it is a great one indeed, my only concern with it is that I feel most of our nation's parents will be reticent of this process especially in these peaceful times" said the Emperor.

"You're right that is a very concerning matter but I think I may have a solution to that" said the Prime Minister.

"And what would that be Dong" asked Shinji.

"I suggest that we exploit the reverence our citizens have for Nandeya as a way to increase fear in them, every citizen both, commoners and military, alike have a distinct fear of his power we could make it public that he has gone AWOL and then make it seem as if he and his wife are more willing than we believe to start a revolution, that happens and their will be enough fear and chaos running around to build the military strength we need" the Prime Minister responded.

"That is a brilliant idea Your Excellancy" said Wallace.

"Our military would be unstoppable" he added.

"Yeah we wouldn't miss that bastard Nandeya at all" said Pulpet.

"Well, since we're all in agreeance here we shall begin this process immediately" said Emperor Shinji as he then snapped his fingers,

Within seconds a young handmaiden entered baring a tray with a bottle of wine and an assortment of glasses prefilled with wine.

"Gentlemen" said the Emperor as he grabbed a glass and held it up high before continuing,

"To another thousand years of the greatness that is the Man Empire".

Unbeknownst to any other occupying the room Prime Minister Honest put a particularly wry grin on his face as the Emperor said those words before all four of the men drank from their glasses in celebration of the journey they were about to embark on, that would take the Man Empire to new incredible heights.

* * *

With several months having passed since the Nandeya's escape from the Man Empire, they had found themselves adjusting well to life on the Nandeya farm. Karin, for instance, had found herself quickly forming an immediate bond with her new father-in-law. For Karin's part she grew very attached to the elder Nandeya so quick due to, in her opinion, him being just like Ryujin. There were several shining examples that she could point out where the two men were indistinguishable including the fact that both men everyday would train/worked out no less then three times, they were very competitive with the two of them always trying to outdo eachother in everything including their normal work around the farm, and the fact that the two men had an incredible appetite and she should know as she was the one who prepared most of the meals. In fact the only difference she ever noticed in her between the father and son was that Ryujin was a warrior and his father is a farmer but one couldn't easily tell that at all as despite his age he was still very well muscularly defined and was also quite strong despite both his age and occupation. Indeed getting to know him she found that he could indeed have been a very high ranking member of any military if he wanted to, he however was turned off to the idea of being a warrior at a young age due to all the politics involved in being one. He felt that being a good warrior meant that you were always going to be in a position where you had to serve someone, especially politicians whom he felt were so susceptible to corruption. Along with his feeling about warriors always having to answer to someone he felt that it would be too much of a fine line between a warrior and a terrorist based off of the warrior's handler's whims, something that Karin couldn't help but greatly respect out of the elder Nandeya as it was the main reason that she and Ryujin had left the Empire. The elder Nandeya for his part had quickly and very easily grown very attached to his new daughter-in-law due in part to her, in his opinion, being a reincarnation of Ryujin's late mother. Although they were both quite different in appearance as Karin was taller, bigger, more muscularly toned, and had blonde hair as opposed to Ryujin's mother who had the same color hair as Ryujin, the two Pachean women were identical in mannerisms. The elder Pachea could name so many examples of how the two women were just alike. From the fact that the two women were demons in the kitchen and, from what he could begrudgingly tell from all the noise that mainly Ryujin would make on some nights, a demon in the sack. Also the fact that from what the elder Nandeya could tell, Karin is every bit the violent spitfire of woman that Ryujin's mother was. Ryujin, like him, could be purposedly very immature at times which he knew for a fact would annoy Ryujin's mother to no end from him, to the point where she would become very violent with him something he noticed that Karin would do with Ryujin. The elder Nandeya would personally love this aspect of Ryujin's relationship with his wife, because to him, these emotional outbursts showed that she really cared and he knew his son felt the same way. He knew that both he and his son felt that having a lover that had an emotional opinion and loved you enough to challenge your's vs having a submissive wife who did everything you told them to do out of fear of something like physical, spiritual, or emotional abuse or some other fear a man could bring to a woman. For the elder Nandeya's part his wife could assault him with all the strength she had, something she'd never do, and would only barely hurt him so he never had any reason to ever strike his wife. Alot of the time when she went into these outburst he would intentionally and playfully antagonize her to see if he could get her to hurt him which she never could. He knew that this, however, was very different for Ryujin because if Ryujin wasn't defending himself probably Karin could do a significant amount of damage to him, however, luckily for Ryujin, Karin was less prone to these violent bouts of anger towards Ryujin than his mother was to his father. In fact Ryujin and Karin, before she got pregnant, used to engage in sparring contest often as a way of training. In these sessions the two would actively try to hurt eachother however, to Karin's annoyance, Ryujin could rarely bring himself to actually striking her at all, with him never striking her in her face, which would mainly limit his offense to blocks, parries and throws. Despite these handicaps Ryujin would still "win" most of these sparring contest with him only losing due to his reluctance to seriously injured his wife, a luxury that Karin wouldn't give Ryujin. Nonetheless, due to them both being warriors, this did nothing but strengthen their love for eachother because of their power. For all these reasons and more the Father, the Son, and the Son's Wife had grown ever close over the course of the time they had spent together. The three had also learned to cohabitate with eachother very well, with each of the three doing their part to thrive on the farm, as was the case currently, with Ryujin working in the fields, his father milking the cows, and Karin preparing a meal. As Karin, now several months and visibly pregnant, was preparing dinner, while standing over the stove, stirring a pot she was suddenly stricken with a small sharp pain which caused her to wince a little before that pain came back alot worse than it was originally causing her to fall to her knees immediately in pain as she tried to call out for help but the pain was so unbearable all she could do was gasp as she collapsed to the floor. Out in the fields Ryujin was currently in the middle of harvesting some crops when he suddenly felt something pulling at his heart, a feeling he interpreted as something being wrong with Karin with him also knowing that she was pregnant Ryujin instantly bolted for Karin's position at blinding speeds, with him covering the large distance between them in seconds. Upon Ryujin's arrival he saw his wife on the floor in the fetal position clutching her abdomen grunting in pain with tears streaming her face. Immediately rushing to her side, not touching her and panicking while not knowing what to do, he did the only thing he could think of.

"DAAAAD!"

Ryujin yelled at the top of his lungs calling for his father before telling his wife that he was here for her. Within just a few seconds longer than it took Ryujin to arrive, Ryujin's father was in the room and upon analyzing the situation he backed his son away from his wife and began to examine her. After a few moments Ryujin's father spoke up,

"We have to get her to the medical room immediately she's going to have this baby now!" he said sternly.

"The what room!?" Ryujin asked panickingly confused.

"The far back room with the med table in it, ass." said the elder Nandeya angry for having to explain himself.

"Wait!, you're going to deliver my baby yourself" Ryujin asked as he gathered his wife and began to move towards the room.

"Uh yes, how in the fuck do you think you got here, I delivered you, smart ass, and with your assistance I'm gonna deliver my grandchild, now quit fucking talking back to me and do as I say" said the elder Nandeya even more frustrated from having to explain himself to his son even further.

Within seconds both men had reached the room with Ryujin placing Karin on the examination table as soon as they entered as the Elder Pachea began to prepare for the delivery. After a several hours long and exhausting delivery procedure Karin successfully gave birth to twins, a girl with the same color hair as Karin born first and a boy with the same color hair as Ryujin born second. As the girl was born Karin chose the name Natsuki for her and as the boy was born she chose the name Natsu for him. After delivering Natsu and after congratulating Karin the elder Nandeya bundled up the two Pachean infants and handed them to their father after kissing each of them on the forehead. After receiving his children from his father and thanking him Ryujin went and sat next to his wife allowing her to see her children.

"You did it Rin, I love you so much" Ryujin said as he kissed her on the lips with her, very weakly, returning his kiss.

"I...love...you...too"

Karin said, very strained, as she then, very weakly, reached out and caressed her two children's faces, Natsu's first then followed by Natsuki's as she then rested her hand upon Natsuki's cheek with a weak smile on her face. After watching this for a few seconds Ryujin thought to himself that in all his years he had never been happier,

"Aren't they the most beautiful thing you've ever seen" Ryujin said while staring at the newborns, admiring them. After a few seconds of not hearing a response from Karin Ryujin looked up from his children only to see Karin had dozed off with her hand still cupping Natsuki's face and a smile still on her face. This caused Ryujin to put a smile on his face as he took in the beautiful sight. It was only a few moments after this that Ryujin's blissful happiness turned into a nervous panic as he realized that his wife wasn't breathing. He immediately called her name repeatedly and desperately, unable to shake her because he was still holding their children. After not receiving a response for some time Ryujin began to panic yelling for his father at the top of his lungs saying,

"DAAAAD",

While waking the sleeping twins filling the room with the sound of the infants crying as his father re-entered.

"What's wrong",

Said the elder Nandeya as he entered the room before he analyzed the scene before him and before Ryujin could answer his question he immediately asked,

"What happened to her?", as he rushed to her side and started checking her vitals.

"We were talking and she just went out!" said Ryujin as he placed his still crying infants into their beds before heading back to his wife's side.

"She hasn't got a pulse, here I need you to perform CPR on her I have to give her an adrenaline shot that's the only thing that can save her" the elder Nandeya said as he ran to the room's medical cabinet.

"Come on Karin, don't you fucking do this to me" Ryujin said as he performed CPR on his wife with tears streaming down his face for the first time in his life.

"Stand aside son" said Ryujin's returning father as he noticed he had a very large needle in his hand.

"Please my dear daughter come back to us" he said as he jammed the needle directly into her heart injecting the substance into her as the both of them hoped and prayed for her to wake up while Ryujin continued the CPR.

After a few more moments the elder Nandeya stopped Ryujin so he could check her vitals again as Ryujin waited anxiously. After a few seconds the elder Nandeya put his hand on his son's shoulder and said the words,

"She's gone son" barely above a whisper to his son.

"No she can't be, SHE CAN'T BE!" Ryujin said as he desperately continued the CPR with tears streaming down his face not accepting this.

His father, with tears in his eyes both from the loss of his beloved daughter-in-law and from the pain his son was experiencing, wanted so badly to comfort his son but because of his experience personally with losing his wife he felt he should let his son deal with this his own way. It took a few more moments of Ryujin performing CPR on his wife's body before he realized she wasn't coming back and he stopped his CPR with his hands still over her chest. As realisation hit him it felt like a mountain being dropped on him,

"She's gone",

Was all he was able to say before falling to his knees and curling up into a ball on all fours beginning to sob hysterically.

"Dammit, dammit, dammit"

He said repeatedly as he began to rapidly pound the concrete floor of the room with his fists in a blind rage, causing it to cave in and and his father's entire house to shake as he continued to do so causing the twins to begin to cry in fear. Ryujin's father, seeing this, immediately ran to his son's side trying desperately to calm him down.

"Son"

The Elder said in the most comforting voice he could muster as he gently placed his hand on his son's shoulder comforting him before he continued,

"I know you're hurting now and I feel your pain too but you have to calm down now you're scaring the twins and you could end up hurting them" he said with his voice elevating with each word out of his mouth trying to get through to him.

Ryujin initially didn't hear his father due to the extremely incensed state he was in, with all of his attention focused on tearing through the floor, it was only after several moments of his father pleading with him and his newborns' crying their little heart's out that Ryujin was finally able to come to his senses. As soon as when he did he quickly ran to his twins, picking them up and immediately and tearfully beginning to comforti them while saying that,

"I'm sorry, Daddy's here and Daddy would never hurt you".

As Ryujin continued to comfort his terrified infants he went and took a seat with his father while still trying to comfort them with tears still falling down his face. Then, the grief stricken Ryujin while still coddling his children asked his father a question that he felt he needed the answer to.

"Dad" he said in a tone his father almost didn't recognize out of him,,

"Yes son" the elder Pachea answered

"How do you do it?" asked Ryujin,

"Do what?" his father asked back.

"How do you make it seem like mom never existed, did you two even really love each other?" he asked.

"How fucking dare you even think of something like that, there isn't a day, no, a second that goes by that I dont think about your mother. The 30 years I spent with your mother were the greatest years of my life, when I lost her when you were born I'd gladly have switched places with her and let her be the one that raised you as selfish as that is because you wouldn't be as strong as you are now. That's how much I love your mother I'd easily sacrifice my greatest accomplishment being what it is just so she wouldn't be the one that's dead" said the elder Nandeya.

"Then how do you do it, all my life the only time we ever talked about mom is when I asked you about her, how do you keep going on" Ryujin said still torn by grief.

"You're mother and I loved eachother so much, we wanted to spend as much of our lives together as we could before we had you because we both knew the risk involved which is why we waited until we were older. We both felt that sharing a child is the most beautiful thing two people that are in love can do with eachother, therefore now that I see what you've become it doesn't hurt so much not having your mother with me to enjoy it, she wouldn't want it that way anyway. Whenever it hurts not having her here I just think about the 30 years we spent together and the beautiful thing we've created."

"Here son", he said as he gestured towards his grandchildren in his son's arms.

"Look at them, and I mean really look at them and tell me that they aren't worth it" said the elder Pachea.

For the next few moments after his father asked him that question all Ryujin could do was stand there and look at his twins before he suddenly asked his father to,

"Please hold them for me, I need to say goodbye" he said as he passed the twins to his father while somberly keeping his head down as he slowly walked towards his wife.

As he reached his wife he slowly looked into her face, knowingly for the last time, still thinking she was as beautiful as she ever was with the same smile still on her face as tears poured out of his eyes as he took her hand, the very one that last touched Natsuki, into his.

"Karin, I love you so much I wish it had have been me" he said as he kissed his wife's on the lips for the last time before he continued.

"I promise you what you did here today, bringing our children to life at the cost of your own, will not not be for nothing mark my words, ONE OF YOUR CHILDREN WILL BE THE STRONGEST DEMON THIS WORLD HAS EVER SEEN AND THE NAME NANDEYA WILL RULE THIS WORLD"

Ryujin tearfully and psychoticly shouted once again scaring his children and this time even his father slightly. Ryujin then, while still sobbing, brushed his wife's hair back with his hand and kissed her on her lips before saying,

"Goodbye Karin, I love you".

After that Ryujin immediately turned back around and approached his father gesturing to be handed his children back before speaking again,

"Dad I need you to bury her next to mom now, immediately, if I look at her again I'll lose all my will to live" he said with his back turned as he began to make his way out of the room.

"I understand my son, don't worry about it I'll take care of her, she was a wonderful woman and she's will be joining another one right now, probably talking about how crazy we are" his father said trying to be comforting.

"Thanks dad" was all Ryujin could say as he continued on to his room dejected.

"Poor kid"

The elder said as he watched his son walked away despondent before looking at the deceased body of his daughter-in-law and saying,

"You too" as he brushed her hair back with his hand with tears in his eyes but not sobbing.

"If you only had only had one I think you might have survived but the strain of having two was too much for you, I guess it was your destiny" he said as he then picked her up bridal style and kissed her on the forehead.

"I do fear as though he may be right, because your children are unreasonably strong for infants, this could be trouble" he said as he then carried his daughter-in-law out of the room to prepare her for her burial.

He tried to give her as beautiful a burial as he could, he just happened to already have a coffin prepared so he decorated it as much as he could leaving her Imperial Military Colonel Insignia on the top of it, he saw it as the least he could do for such a great woman that gave her life for his grandchildren. After burying her, of course next to his wife, he gave her a nice headstone, something he also already had a supply of, engraving her full name, Karin Retsugi Nandeya, her dates of birth and death detailing her 26 years of existence, and the words, Beloved Mother, Daughter, and Wife on it. He then laid a flower on her grave and said while closing his eyes and putting his hand over his heart,

"You were a great woman, keep my wife company until me and Ryujin come to join you, until then farewell Karin Retsugi Nandeya, I love you.

* * *

Within the Partas Clan Village of the Northern Continent, It had been well over two years since Malakëth Eisläin had defeated and killed his father Lärs for the title of Partas Clan Chief. In the subsequent time since attaining his position Malakëth had led the Partas Clan to prosperity that they had not seen in centuries. The reasons on how Malakëth had led the Partas people to such great prosperity was due to various initiatives the he began to inact that his father didn't. One being that because he was so much stronger than his father he started hunting stronger and more dangerous Danger Beasts than his father ever did. In doing this they would salvage the carcasses and either use the material themselves or sell them for a huge profit. He also began to allow himself and his people to become Danger Beast exterminators for hire for whatever village or nation that could afford their expensive price. Another reason why the Partas prospered so much was due to Malakëth's overwhelming popularity with his people. One large reason for this among others was that no matter what, he never forced one Partas Member to fight for him. Although he made sure that every member of the clan knew he was the strongest and most merciless person in the village he also made sure that everyone in the village knew that as chief it was his duty to to see to the welfare of his village. To him that meant that he was responsible for guarding every member of his village's life with his own something he took very seriously. All of these reasons led to Malakëth being a very popular leader amongst his people which led to many Partas, including ones that wouldn't have ordinarily, put their lives on the line for him in several of his high risk endeavors. Due to his popularity Malakëth was loyally and proudly followed and respected by virtually every member of his village, with the exception of the two surviving members of the Bloodriver family. Both Esdeath and her father still harbored a deep hatred for Malakëth that had only exacerbated over the course of the past two years. The only reason that these two still hated Malakëth was simply because he was the village chief, something that they both thought he was doing a good job at, and that Esdeath wasn't. Despite both of them believing him to be be a great leader they knew that only the chief was the strongest warrior in the village, a title Esdeath thought he was now ununworthy of. In the preceding two years Esdeath had trained herself diligently with the single purpose of becoming as strong as she felt she could possibly get all the while studying Malakëth as much as she could every time she seen him in battle on one of his hunting expeditions, as another severe drawback of his overwhelming popularity was that over the course of those two years literally no other Partas warrior challenged him for his title so she had no actually one on one fights to study other than when he defeated his father. Still, completely unsure of what Malakëth's true strength was, Esdeath nonetheless went ahead and challenged him, with her father watching to a duel for the title of Village Chief, as he returned from one of his hunting expeditions with a small group of warriors as they dragged in the carcass of a very large Brontosaurus like Danger Beast. Immediately after she challenged him one of the hunters he brought with him spoke up,

"You impertinent wench how dare you speak to our great Chief in such a way, bow your head!" he said as Malakëth stood back and watched the situation with his arms folded and a sly smirk on his face.

"He isn't my Chief anymore which is why I'm challenging him you imbecile, his time has passed now stands aside!" Esdeath said in a very calm demeanor with her arms folded as well.

"You brat, you should be taught some respect!" said the hunter as he aimed at slap for Esdeath's left cheek but he hit nothing but air as Esdeath had blindingly ducked under his slap and planted a right fist into his abdomen causing him to cough up a large amount of blood and hunch over on the ground on all fours before he lost consciousness.

"Would you like anymore demonstrations or will you accept my challenge" Esdeath stated boldly.

Just as a few of his men, who had now been angered by Esdeath's boasting were about to step forward Malakëth held his hand up with a sly grin on his face halting his men.

"Fine, I accept your challenge, I can't remember the last time I've been in a real fight, so long since I've used my full power, I will use you, little girl, to remind my people how powerful their leader is" said Malakëth.

"Hmph" Esdeath scoffed before continuing,

"We'll see about that, like I said your time is finished, like the rules say you have one week to prepare yourself I suggest you use it to prepare for your trip to hell" she said as she put a very frightful smile on her face showing her teeth.

"Ooh motivation, I'm going to enjoy beating the rebelliousness right out of you, you'll be licking my boots" he said as he put a very similar look on his face as both warriors emanated very powerful and murderous auras that only few could sense.

"Disgusting" Esdeath said as her face turned red with anger as she balled her fists,

"We'll see who'll be licking who's feet" she said as she abruptly turned around and left.

"I'll be waiting" Malakëth said as his men began to start a round of applause before he turned around and gave them an intimidating look, silencing them.

As Esdeath and her father continued to walk away Beriäle couldn't help but tense up from the encounter that had just transpired, because unbeknownst to any of the other people present he could sense very powerful auras from both warriors. The auras from the warriors was so powerful and heavy on the elder Partas that it caused his heart to race and for him to sweat despite the fact he knew that his daughter would never harm him nor would she allow anyone to do so, despite the the fact that she always stated how much she hated very fact that his daughter was apart of these auras that had this affect on him was, up to this point, the proudest moment of his life.

 _"Such horrible powers, and my baby girl is one of them, this will be such a legendary battle, she doesn't even have to win in order for me to be the proudest father ever, I'll be satisfied if she gives him a battle he won't forget, if she wins, and she's a woman, God will have truly blessed me like he does so few of us"_ he thought to himself.

As they continued to walk together Beriäle came behind his daughter and placed his hand on her shoulder before saying,

"No matter what happens I want you to know this my daughter, I'm very proud of you, you have already proven to me to be a far greater warrior than I could have hoped for, I love you" he said.

"Tch, whatever said Esdeath as she shrugged her father's hand off of her shoulder and continued walking.

This caused Beriäle to simply put a smile on his face and think to himself,

 _"She's about to go into the biggest moment of her life, l'm so glad to see she's still herself, with that kind of poise she could see herself the winner."_

After a week of preparation from both Malakëth and Esdeath, their showdown was set to take place as the entire village had come to spectate it at the village battlegrounds _._ Malakëth had been the first to arrive not wearing his formal village wear that he wore in his capacity as chief. Instead he wore black cargo pants along with black combat like boots, as well as a black turtleneck like sleeveless muscle shirt while still wearing his chief medallion around his neck and Partas headband around his head with his pale blue hair coming down just past his shoulders. While Esdeath wore a simple pair of spat like shorts stopping just below her thighs black tribal boots lined with Snow Wolf fur stopping about three quarters up her shins. She wore her tribal bandana on her neck with the knot pointing to the left as well as a loose fitting tee like shirt with a short v like neck with tribal markings on the sleeves, neckline and midriff as her waist length snow white hair was kept in a loose ponytail for this battle. As Esdeath and her father arrived at the small stadium like battlegrounds she took her place in middle of the battle arena about ten feet from Malakëth. The battle arena was a large 50×50 meter marble stage surrounded by a few rows of elevated stands of benches so all spectators could see. As the two competitors stood there sizing eachother up with their arms folded Malakëth was the first to speak.

"Well well I'm surprised you actually showed up today, and are really going through with this, it's been so long since a Villager has even talked back to me that I actually thought that this was some type of joke, set up to surprise me of something, but that's obviously not the case here, good, it's been so long, I hope you're worth it" he said as he did a few minor stretches.

Esdeath, not amused by his anecdote, simply dropped into a fighting stance and said,

"I, Esdeath Bloodriver, am here to claim the position of Partas Chief as my own, prepare yourself!",

"Great choice for your last words, I'll make sure it's on your tombstone"

Malakëth said with his arms still crossed before he was suddenly surprised by an incoming fist from Esdeath aimed at the right side of his face, that he was barely able to block, immediately followed by a barrage of more blinding punches all of which he was barely able to block or dodge. Malakëth knew now that this was going to be the fight of his life and that he hoped that she wasn't holding back otherwise he would be doomed. Unbeknownst to him Esdeath was thinking much of the same, knowing that she was giving it her all and that he was still dodging and blocking her attacks, but she couldn't tell from his expressions if he was having any difficulty in such. After a few moments of Esdeath firing fists at blinding speeds Malakëth was able to catch one of her arms and aimed a counter punch directly for her left temple, which she immediately caught thus freeing her other arm, she then, using Malakëth like a springboard, flipped back a few meters. Malakëth however, not allowing her a moment's rest, was immediately upon her throwing a barrage of his own lightning quick punches at her which she in turn struggled mightily with dodging and blocking. It was now that both fighters realized that their strengths were very close to eachother, making them both also realize that this was going to be a very long battle immediately filling them both with joy at the thought. As the battle continued on with both fighters exchanging dodged or blocked blows, to the crowds amusement, Esdeath was the first to land a strike hitting him with a kick to the ribs. Wincing from the sharp pain of the kick Malakëth immediately grabbed her leg before she was able to pull away and spun her around fully once before slamming her hard into the ring floor, kicking up alot of dust which caused alot of spectators to miss Malakëth's axe kick that he immediately aimed for Esdeath and missed as she was able to recover and alertly flipped away which caused Malakëth to leave a small dent in the larger dent in the ring created from her body. Esdeath continued to flip until she was several meters from him immediately dropping into a defensive stance upon stopping while anticipating an incoming attack from Malakëth. To her relief one didn't come as Malakëth stood there with his foot still in the dent he created. Both fighters then used this small reprieve to recollect themselves as Malakëth was sure that Esdeath had cracked some of his ribs and with Esdeath feeling as if she had been trampled by a herd of Savanna Elephants.

"Well I must say this day was definitely worth that unbelievably long wait, you're strong, easily stronger than anyone else in the village, you'll definitely serve as a good reminder, or warning, to everyone in our clan how strong their Chief is" he said while further stretching himself, trying to unstiffen his injury.

"Yes, the new one" was all Esdeath said as she again launched herself towards Malakëth aiming a spinning kick to the left of his face which he blocked with his left forearm.

The two powerful Partas Warriors continued to battle on for a good portion of time with both of them severely damaging eachother. Malakëth had suffered a broken nose from a left fist from Esdeath, a broken arm from a missed punch that she reversed into an armbar as well as several lacerations and bruises from head to toe. Esdeath was likewise littered all over her body with cuts and contusions as well as a busted lip from a left from Malakëth, a severely swollen left eye from another fist, which caused her to have trouble seeing out of it, and a dislocated ankle from a missed kick that Malakëth reversed into an ankle lock which would have broken it had she not desperately kicked herself out of the hold by repeatedly kicking at wherever her free leg could land. In addition to damaging themselves pretty badly they had also largely damaged the battle arena with several indentations all over from either a missed strike or thrown body. The two combatants now stood several meters from eachother badly injured and now preparing for what they both knew would be their final attack as they both knew there wasn't much left in either of them. While Malakëth was still contemplating what would be his move Esdeath had already formulated a plan in which she was sure was going to work. Without allowing Malakëth another moment to react she immediately rushed towards him aiming a kick with her right and injured leg. Malakëth, quickly analyzing the situation, immediately wondered why was she kicking at him with her injured leg but immediately cast that thought aside as he saw that this attack presented a huge open for him to end this battle. As she aimed the kick for the left of his face with her injured right leg he blocked it with his left forearm and pushed the leg away and countered with a right hook smashing into the right side of her face and rendering her unconscious. Unknown to Malakëth however, using the added momentum from Malakëth's parry she haf swung her left leg with all her strength aiming for the back of Malakëth's head and with him having no time or remaining energy to dodge it, the kick came crashing into his head knocking him out. The two strikes which, to the audience, seemingly occurred almost simultaneously, made a sickening sound as the force from the blows sent the two fighters skidding on the ground in opposite directions for a few feet. As the two fighters lay unmoving on the arena floor the entire crowd of spectators erupted into a roaring applause at the legendary display they had just witnessed as the villages medical personnel and Beriäle made their way to the two unconscious warrior's bodies. The doctors arrived first and immediately began to work on Malakëth completely ignoring Esdeath since the fight officially ended in a draw, which meant that the incumbent Chief would be declared the winner, so the Chief's health was first priority as he'd more than likely have Esdeath killed once he came to. Beriäle, arriving last, came to his daughter's side and knelt down beside her flipping her body over so that she was lying on her back before he began to stroke her hair with his hand before he started to speak.

"My dear Daughter, words cannot describe how proud you made me today, Malakëth is likely far and away the strongest Chief we've ever had and despite the fact that you are a woman you never backed down from him and gave him everything you had and nearly won. If only you had of been born a man you would have easily won today. All of our people won't soon if ever forget this day the greatest Partas Chieftain duel that we have ever had the privilege to bare witness to and the day we almost had our first female Chief, the only shame about today is now your life has to end, but don't worry Esdeath I won't let you die alone" said Beriäle with tears welling up in his eyes as he now turned to the unconscious Chief who now began to stir.

"I've had all I can take of you in this life and now you pledge to further burden me in the afterlife, shall I ever no of any existence where I'm not tormented by you" said a groggy Esdeath as she had slowly regained consciousness to her Father's and everyone else's surprise.

"Get your hands off of me!, I am a warrior I don't need your comfort"

She said as she shrugged him off and brought herself up with her elbows to see Malakëth as he was assisted up to a seated position as he held his head in his hand.

"Ahhh, what on earth happened" said Malakëth holding his head in great pain.

"Lord Malakëth, you've come to, what do you remember?" said one of the attendants.

"The last thing I remember was connecting with a right to her face, a real good one too, she should have been knocked out, did some coward sneak attack me?" He said while looking around.

"No sir, right as you delivered that punch she connected with a kick that we didn't think you seen coming it happen so fast that alot of us actually couldn't see that exchange, just the result" said the attendant answering Malakëth's question.

From the attendant relaying that to him Malakëth was able to decipher exactly what had happened as he started to stand while looking Esdeath's way, as she had now brought herself to a seated position.

"She used my momentum to help her delivery that kick and I couldn't even see it coming, incredible" he said as started to slowly and painfully make his way to her.

Both Beriäle and Esdeath saw this and both knew what was coming, just as Beriäle was about to speak Esdeath held her hand, to stop him, and said,

"Back away old man, allow me to accept my fate with dignity" as she rose to a kneeling position.

With every fiber of his being Beriäle wanted to protest, knowing what was about to come, but he knew he couldn't, he'd be denying his daughter her of last wish. So he did what he was told as he stepped away from his daughter as the Chief approached her.

"Although I've failed in my effort in trying to defeat you today...," she said before being interrupted by a spell of hacking up blood,

"I'll die happy knowing that as long as you live, you'll never forget what I did to you here today, so go ahead do as you must" she said as she put a defiant smile on her bloodied face.

Malakëth, for his part, as soon as he had reached Esdeath he just simply had a calm demeanor and almost stoic look on his face as he quietly stared at her even during her moment of defiance. For several more moments both Malakëth and Esdeath continued to stare at eachother silently, Malakëth stoicly and Esdeath grinning, before Malakëth went down to his knees, painfully, joining Esdeath at knee level and taking her hands into his before speaking.

"Esdeath Bloodriver, you are the strongest warrior i have ever seen, other than myself, will you do me the honor of baring my child?" he said with his face turning red a as he bowed down to her still in anguish from the fight.

Seeing the look in Malakëth's eyes and knowing fully well it's meaning Beriäle wanted to jump up and down and cry tears of joy but knew not to because he knew this only meant that his daughter now held her life in her own hands. For Esdeath's part, after Malakëth's proposal, she just sat there with a blank expression on her face for a few moments, having taken the rebellious grin she had on her face earlier off the moment Malakëth grabbed her, before she angrily snatched her hands away from his and spoke as her face turned red as well.

"How dare you, I've trained my entire life with the single purpose of dethroning you, do you really think that it'll be that easy?, That just because you've given me the greatest battle in the history of mankind that I'll just lay down and spend my life being your servent?" She said as she painfully arose and put her hands on her hips.

Upon hearing Esdeath's reply Malakëth immediately put a disappointed at first and then a determined look on his face as he then rose to her level straining himself before speaking.

"That is exactly what I expect you to do, regardless of how ever you may feel, you failed here today, meaning that I am still your Chief and you will do what I say or I will kill you" Malakëth said as he folded his arms over his chest.

"THEN DO IT"

Yelled Esdeath angrily before she slapped Malakëth full on across the face that was so loud it could be heard across the village and caused Malakëth to put a shocked expression on his face before she continued to speak.

"I am Esdeath Bloodriver I would gladly die before I'd be told what to do by anyone, EVER, not even my father has ever dared tell me what to do, you may have earned some respect from me today, but my hatred for you has only strengthened due to you "drawing" me today" said Esdeath with venom.

Malakëth with his head still tilted from Esdeath's slap then put a devilish grin on his face before he turned to her and spoke.

"Gooood"

He said just as he backhanded her on the right side of her chin which caused her to fall away face first, due to her injured leg, as he then leaned over her and continued to speak.

"I never wanted the woman that's going to have my children to be weak in any way, now you will love me even if I have to beat every bit of that defiance right out of you" said Malakëth.

"Tch, is that so" Esdeath said after spitting some blood out before she slowly began to rise, but before she got all the way to her feet she land a very powerful punch deep into his midsection causing him to fall to his knees clutching his stomach while groaning in pain.

"You'd have to kill me before I'd let that happen, if you truly want my love you're going to have to fight even harder than you fought today and then hope that you've earned it" she said.

Malakëth looked up at Esdeath as he regained his composure after first coughing up some blood before saying,

"A few moments ago I thought I was falling in love..." he said before wiping the blood off of his face and rising to her level which caused Esdeath to raise an eyebrow and put herself on guard.

"And now I know I'm in love"

He said as he then noticed that Esdeath cracked a small and quick grin on her face at his words as if he said exactly what she wanted him to, but as quickly as that smile came it left, as if her showing him that smile was her showing him weakness.

"Well, seeing as how you won't accept my love today will you at least come and live with me now, today you have proven to be worthy of being Chief so I feel as though you should be treated as one, there was no clear victory today so, if you wish, would you like to join me in being Chief of our people" said Malakëth.

This sudden announcement from Malakëth both figuratively and literally floored Esdeath and most of the villagers respectively. For the villagers that protested this, they couldn't believe that their great Chief would allow such a rebellious, disrespectful and selfish brat to lead them alongside himself. Other villagers, most of which were female Partas, were supportive of this decision feeling that her strength earned her that right and that the both of them together would make their Village and People unstoppable. The rest of the Partas, mainly consisting of warriors, were completely indifferent to this idea with it not mattering to them who led their people. Esdeath was shocked by this announcement because she couldn't believe how honorable of a decision that Malakëth had made. She felt that if he were truly sincere about what he just said she would immediately understand to an extent why the villagers loved him so much and mostly blindly followed him. She also felt that because he wasn't able to definitively defeat her that she held just as much right to the position that he did, and so Esdeath wasted little time in responding to Malakëth's proposal.

"Well, I now understand a little why these people follow you so blindly, a truly honorable choice despite our customs, fine then, I accept your offer and perhaps maybe one day you can earn my love or I'll just kill you and be Chief all by myself" said Esdeath.

"Please!, we both know if you could kill me I'd already be dead, now gather your things and meet me at my home as soon as possible" Malakëth said rather nonchalantly.

"See now I'm going to have to stop you right there" said Esdeath as she put an angry and pouty look on her face before continuing,

"Now I may have agreed on becoming your equal but you, or anyone else for that matter, will NEVER EVER tell ME what to do" Esdeath said emphatically.

"Tch we'll see about that" said Malakëth as he and Esdeath began to glare at eachother at those words.

The two Partas Chiefs continued to stare holes through eachother for several more moments silently before they simultaneously turned from eachother and quietly headed their separate ways for now, to the awe of most of the villagers. Most of all was Esdeath's father who could not believe most of the events that transpired. Not only did his daughter essentially defeat Malakëth, at the cost of her own defeat, she also wasn't going to die, oddly enough, because Malakëth had fallen in love with her. This was so surprising because both he and most members of the Partas Clan thought he was either asexual or a homosexual. They thought this because, at the age of eighteen, he had never taken any interest in women and was still a virgin by his own admission. " _Able to do something none of us thought was possible and stole his heart with her fist, that daughter of mine truly is a legendary individual"_ Beriäle thought before his daughter reached him and they started to head back home as they both knew they would be embarking on a new journey in life.

* * *

Esdeath, Malakëth, and Beriäle would all go on to live with eachother with Esdeath and Malakëth for the most part equally splitting duties as chief and Beriäle serving as a special advisor to them. Malakëth had invited Beriäle to live with them and to that position based simply on the type of person he felt that must have raised Esdeath to be to which Beriäle quickly accepted much to Esdeath's vocal displeasure with her stating that she'd thought she had finally rid herself of that bothersome old man. As the three would go on to live with eachother it would take 2 years and countless fights between them before Esdeath would finally fall in love with Malakëth. The two Partas warriors would find themselves fighting eachother so often for a multitude of reasons most of which being that the two of them enjoyed fighting more than anything in life. Other than that a big reason they would find themselves fighting was because of Malakëth's inability at times to tolerate Esdeath's overall ruthlessness. In her time, as compared to his, as Chief, Esdeath would have a very low tolerance for what she deemed to be failure and zero tolerance for what she considered to be an act of treason. If a villager didn't perform a task up to her lofty expectations she would often brutally torture them and sometimes even kill them. She felt this way because she, like her now husband and most Partasians, believed that the strong live and the weak die she just felt that way to a far more severe extent with her being completely merciless. Where Malakëth felt that there was always great use for those that are weaker the himself, at the very least from a leadership standpoint, Esdeath would feel that because she was the strongest in the village and its leader that those who committed a crime under her leadership were openly disrespecting her and she had made up her mind long ago that she would never tolerate disrespect from anyone not even her father let alone someone she was supposed to rule. Although he did personally disagree with alot of her methods, he loved the relationship that he and Esdeath shared with the villagers. With Esdeath a good portion of the villagers genuinely feared her due to her low tolerance for "disobedience" so much so that there become much more order and structure amongst the village especially amongst the youth who began to create horror stories of Esdeath amongst themselves calling her the "Demon Queen Esdeath". With naturally the youth being the most rebellious of the people that served her, she would find herself punishing them the most often however rarely in death as opposed to adults. The only time she would actually kill a juvenile if she deemed that youth beyond their parents control, which would often always include the death of the parents as well for creating and allowing such an "Incorrigible youth". While Malakëth, as he was before he split his power with Esdeath, was very much beloved by his people and rarely punished them at all with the only times he ever saw fit to punish one of his subjects was when they committed and act of treason, which warranted death. Although Malakëth would actually condemn far less people than Esdeath, Esdeath was always the person to actually carry out the execution, she even enjoyed to do so. Due to this it wasn't long before the Partas people gave Malakëth the new nickname of "The Fair King Malakëth", in contrast to Esdeath's nickname. Malakëth would feel that Esdeath's strictness and his understanding was a great balance of leadership to which he had also seen actually results. During their joint leadership Malakëth had never seen more order amongst his people and with Esdeath's harshness, they had never been stronger as the Partas Village prospered as many more around the world heard of and in some cases feared their name. As for the two Co-Cheifs' personal relationship with eachother, it would go on to take several years before Esdeath would actually fall in love with Malakëth. The way that Malakëth would earn her love was through a combination of his persistence, his strength and the great prospect that any children that they would have could be unstoppable because of Malakëth's and Esdeath's collective power. Just as Esdeath predicted at the conclusion of their battle, however, Malakëth's earning of Esdeath's love came at a very steep price. Due to Esdeath's rebellious nature, Malakëth's unbreakable will and the fact that they both loved fighting, Malakëth would find himself combating Esdeath on a semi-regular basis. In addition to all the intense sparring sessions they would have for "training" purposes, they would often fight over political disagreements much to the anguish of the villagers as whenever Esdeath and Malakëth engaged in a real fight they would often destroy structures in their wake, often being someone's home. These fights would often end only by either a draw, Malakëth feeling that the particular fight wasn't worth it or in Esdeath's narrow defeat much like their sparring sessions with the only difference being is that Esdeath would win more . Regardless of whatever the two would find themselves fighting over or the intensity of the fight, they were always narrow victories with the winner barely being able to walk away. Eventually this contributed mightily to what caused Esdeath to fall in love with Malakëth because no matter how much Esdeath saw her strength improve and thought she was unstoppable Malakëth was always right there to show her his was keeping up with her. Due to both of their strength's constantly improving yet still remaining equal Esdeath took this as sign that the two were meant for eachother. That, added to the fact that, whenever they weren't fighting, either verblly or physically, Malakëth lovingly worshipped Esdeath which made it harder and harder for her not to fall for him by the day, before she eventually cracked. During their fight she had found a new respect for him and as that respect came the hatred she had for him had all but left. Once the hatred she had for him had left the only thing keeping her from loving him was what she thought was a weakness that he had in his pity for the weak. She would eventually however be swayed on this to an extent because, the majority of the people of their village that had been saved from execution by Esdeath from Malakëth would in time, to her, prove their worth. The reason why she wasn't completely swayed on this was because there were still a good number of villagers who were spared by Malakëth, that didn't make it up to her, that would eventually commit another offense and a third chance was not some Esdeath was going to allow. The reason for this was because whenever a villager caught the ire of Esdeath even if they were lucky enough to draw Malakëth's pity it wouldn't save them from being sadistically tortured by Esdeath who found great enjoyment in the process. She felt that after being spared from death while also being severely punished would make someone extra cautious to not mess up again, given that both her and her husband had no mercy for repeat offenders with them being tortured and killed as opposed to just being tortured, on their second offense. Despite her cruelty however, Malakëth never stopped loving her in fact loving her more intensely the longer he knew her and with it all, she would eventually love him just as much as he did her. Once their love was cemented, which took several years to both materialize, and according to Malakëth, several years off of his life, Esdeath could not wait to have Malakëth's children with them immediately beginning to try to do such. It didn't take long for them to be successful because after only a few weeks of their trying Esdeath would find herself pregnant, her pregnancy, however, turned out to be a very tumultuous one. After carrying the baby for a little over three months Esdeath began to experience extreme pain from the baby's hyperactivity in her womb. Not only that but her and Malakëth's baby was also sapping Esdeath of all of her strength by draining all of Esdeath's nourishment. Due to this Esdeath, who had been a muscular but lean five feet ten inches tall and 145 pounds, had become all but emaciated with her stomach being the only thing on her that wasn't bone thin. Malakëth and Esdeath had varying degrees of excitement over this with both of them feeling that Esdeath's condition guaranteed that their child would not only be strong but may even been the one child that was capable of taming their village's long kept sacred treasure, Demon's Extract, spoke of in legend. With Malakëth's excitement also came extreme worry over the love of his life, which he had just gained after years of tireless work and despite the fact that he wanted this child more he would do anything he could not to lose her. Esdeath however had no such worry because she felt that if this pregnancy killed her she would die knowing that her child would have this world under its boot. That was something that Malakëth continued to fear even more as her pregnancy progressed with her physical health declining even further. By the seventh month of her pregnancy she was completely bedridden with her being too weak to stand and had to have all of her food grounded because she was to weak to even chew. Despite all this however Malakëth was still optimistic that both Esdeath and their baby would both survive this arduous pregnancy but Esdeath wasn't nearly so optimistic which lead to a conversation the two had one day while Malakëth was feeding a bedridden Esdeath a bowl of stew.

"I am so pitifully pathetic" said Esdeath after drinking a mouthful of stew from a spoon held by Malakëth.

"Don't say such asanine things" Malakëth angrily stated before continuing,

"You are NO weakling, you hear me, this pregnancy would have killed a normal woman long ago, you shouldn't be alive, yet you are and have the same fire you always had" Malakëth said with conviction.

"Nonsense, if I were truly that strong I wouldn't be going through this and would easily survive this pregnancy" said Esdeath

"What are you talking about!?" Malakëth asked rhetorically in disbelief,

"Like I said, a normal human being would have died long ago, and the fact that you've made it this far means you're going to pull through" he said.

"Please, don't be so stupid" she said,

"I'm so weak that I am completely unable to do anything including, moving, eating, and using the bathroom unassisted, and I'm in constant pain, but somehow you think I can survive delivery which is far and away the most life threatening part of the pregnancy" Esdeath stating more than asking.

"I have to believe that, you can't leave me so soon after we have only be together so short, I refuse to believe that" Malakëth said defiantly.

This caused Esdeath to put a smile on her face, which in turn caused Malakëth to put a smile on his face as well, before she spoke,

"You fool, you're so naive" she said softly as she gently placed her hand on his cheek before continuing,

"Listen you have to make me a promise" she said before Malakëth grabbed her weak hand from his cheek and held it in his.

"Anything for you, I only wish I could endure this pain in your stead" Malakëth said softly.

"I know I won't live to see our daughter, and I accept that, but I need to die knowing that she will never know that it was her immense strength that killed me, she will grow up believing she is an inhuman monster and will take the frustration that comes along with that out on everyone and everything around her including you and Father, now I do want our daughter to rule the world but I can't die peacefully knowing she would do it out of spite instead of the need to be the best" Esdeath pleaded to Malakëth.

Malakëth, avoiding the main subject for now, said,

"Wait, daughter, what makes you think that are child is a girl?" Malakëth asked.

"You can just call it women's intuition, I can feel and sense what's growing in me and everything in me says this is a girl, you watch, now don't think you can change the subject, PROMISE ME!" Esdeath said as loud, demanding and as sternly as she could with her limited strength.

"I can't promise you that because you're going to raise our child right alongside me, and even if you aren't I won't curtail any of my child's anger towards the world, this world is a detestable place, it needs monsters like that to keep order and if that monster is going to be my daughter then so be it" said Malakëth.

"Yes I agree she should be a monster that the whole world fears, but if you let her believe that she'll isolate herself with a massive superiority complex and will be alone her whole life, not even you would be able to reach her" said Esdeath.

"I can't believe you would say such a thing that sounds exactly like how you were and you're the perfect woman" stated Malakëth.

"Yes you're exactly right, that's exactly how I would have been if there wasn't someone out there just as strong as me who also happened to fall in love with me, if I had won our battle our village would have destroyed itself by now because of how harsh of a leader I would have been, I needed you to help me get the best out of our worthy villagers" she said.

"But I wouldn't allow her to be that way regardless" said Malakëth.

"Especially with how strong she's going to be, do you honestly think you can stop her, look at me and my father's relationship" said Esdeath which was followed by Malakëth's stunned silence before he recollected himself.

"Be that as it may I still cannot promise you that, I don't even want to think about losing you even if I do I don't know what I'd be capable of if I lost you so I can't promise you" pleaded Malakëth.

This caused Esdeath to put a small grin on her face as she grabbed one of his hand with both of her's, holding it warmly before speaking.

"I love you" she said, a phrase that neither of them spoke to eachother very often.

"And I love you" said Malakëth as the two then shared a passionate kiss.

"And that's exactly how I know that, no matter what happens to me, you'll do the right thing for our daughter" said Esdeath.

"I'm glad you have that confidence in me, I don't, but that's a reason why I love you" said Malakëth as he continued to feed Esdeath her stew.

"Well someone has to" she said as she continued to eat knowing that she wouldn't have much time left to spend with her loving husband, which caused her to mentally come to the decision that she would try to enjoy her little time left as much as possible.

* * *

True to her prediction, within a few weeks after their conversation, Esdeath passed away in her sleep overnight. Her body was found by Malakëth, as he came to wake up his weakened wife for breakfast like he did every morning, when all of his attempts to rouse his wife failed he immediately began to panic and fear the worse as he frantically shouted for anyone's help, too emotional to realize that he and his wife's personal midwife was in the next room. This caused their midwife and the village medic, who because of the situation wasn't very far away, to rush in and perform an emergency cesarean section, trying to save the baby as Esdeath still hadn't reached eight months into her pregnancy. The midwife was first to arrive, immediately, followed by Beriäle, who also wasn't far away still living with them, then the village medic along with a few members of the chief's personal guard who suggested to Malakëth that he and Beriäle should leave the room which in turn caused Malakëth to threaten their lives, stifling them. Both Malakëth and Beriäle weren't going to leave the room until they both saw this crude birthing all the way through, they had both lost the best thing to happen to them in Esdeath, they had to know first hand if the same would happen with her child. As grief stricken and inconsolable as they were both Malakëth and Beriäle watched disturbingly calm as the medics crudely cut open the lifeless body of Esdeath and pulled an unmoving baby from her body as the midwife shouted "It's a girl" while she cut the umbilical cord. Malakëth's hope however immediately turned into more grief as he noticed right away that the baby wasn't moving which caused him to immediately rush in, pushing the doctor aside and grabbed the motionless body of his daughter, irrationally thinking he could save her. As soon as he grabbed his daughter, however, he realized that the motionless girl was not only alive but she was also smiling. This caused Malakëth to immediately collapse to the ground on his knees from the combination of both physical and mental exhaustion, grief over his wife and relief. Once he looked up his daughter's face all of the sorrow that he had for losing his wife was replaced with joy over the smiling little bundle covered in blood in his arm's feeling that she was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen before being joined by his father-in-law who was likewise melted by the little girl. As Malakëth ripped a peice of his shirt and began to clean of her face, which she didn't like shown by the frown she put on her face, he immediately noticed that she had a porcelain pale skin tone a great omen amongst the Partas along with the rest of her features. Her most prominent feature being, that he could immediately noticed was, that she was an abnormally large baby, as far as Malakëth could tell, she was at least 25 inches long and weighed at least twenty pounds. He also noticed that she had the same blue hair color as he with just a lighter and more vibrant shade also with the same ocean blue eyes that characterized all Partas. Malakëth was especially baffled by the fact that, save for a few moments as he cleaned her face, the entire time this little girl has been alive she hadn't stop smiling, melting his heart while causing him to lose himself completely in his newborn daughter making him temporarily forget about his recently deceased wife for the time being. This, however did not last, as he continued to look upon his daughter's face, splattered with blood, with a purely gleeful grin on her face, he soon realized that she was making a face identical to the ones her mother would make during their fights, causing all of his memories of his wife to come flooding back into him. At this point Malakëth silently stood up and handed his newborn daughter to her grandfather, Beriäle who had wanted to hold his granddaughter desperately since he'd seen her, but understanding that Malakëth needed a moment, patiently waiting his turn and happily accepting her from Malakëth while also losing himself in the infant. As Beriäle continued to coddle his granddaughter Malakëth had made his way over to his wife's lifeless body, staring at her for a few moments, completely taking in the grotesque sight that stood before him, silently. After a few more moments of silence Malakëth bent down and grabbed his wife's face before he gave the lifeless form of his wife a very long and passionate kiss on her lips as tears began to stream down his face. After breaking the incredibly long kiss Malakëth held on to her head as he began to stroke her cheek as he speak,

"Esdeath, you meant everything to me, you were the greatest thing to happen to me in my life, this will be the only time in my life that I will ever shed tears, for you" he said as he wiped the tears from his face before he continued.

"I will keep your promise, our daughter doesn't need to know she killed, you she would have killed anything with her power, and you were right she is the one, the one that will rule this world, I can feel it and I now know that you could feel it to how else would you know that your time was short" said Malakëth.

"I can already tell from the power I sense from her, as a baby, that she will be head and shoulders stronger than all of us, my only regret about this is that your life had to be sacrificed for hers" Malakëth said as he then grabbed her hands into his.

"Which is why I cannot let your legacy die here with you, not only will our daughter carry on your legacy and rule this world the way we were meant to, but she will also carry your name so that, just as you always wanted, the name Esdeath Eisläin, will be known and feared throughout this world."

* * *

Over a decade has passed since the passing of the former Man Imperial Military Colonel Karin Retsugi Nandeya, and thus the birth of her and her husband's, former Great General Ryujin Nandeya's, twin children, Natsuki and Natsu Nandeya. Although, from the moment of their birth, both he and his father sensed great strength in both of the twins, Ryujin would go on to raise them both very differently. With Natsu, Ryujin found a son that was nearly in every way a mirror image of his father, strong, eager for battle and an unbreakable will, the only difference being that Natsu was alot smarter than his father was and showed from an early age natural ability as a leader something his father never showed. Because of this, from the moment the Natsu could walk and talk Ryujin began to cultivate Natsu into the perfect fighting machine using what he learned from both his own father and what he learned during his time in the the Military. This rigorous training led to the father and son becoming real close while greatly admiring eachother's strength. With Natsu's admiration coming from knowing his father was the origin of his strength, and Ryujin's came from the seemingly endless potential he sensed in his son. As strong as the bond that Ryujin shared with his son he had an equally strained relationship with Natsuki. Even though the two loved eachother dearly as a father and daughter should, Ryujin could never bring himself to treat Natsuki the way he treated Natsu. This included, as Natsuki was raised, the fact that Ryujin never yelled at Natsuki no matter what she did. This also included the fact that, even though he trained Natsuki alongside Natsu, he could never truthfully push Natsuki the way he pushed Natsu in their training for fear of hurting her despite Natsuki's protests to the contrary. This, combined with the fact that Natsuki's hunger for battle was just as strong as her brother's, if not stronger, led to Natsuki having great resentment towards her father. She would describe her feelings towards her father as that she both loved and hated him at the same time. She loved him for being an overall great father to her, treating her like a princess while doting nearly on her every whim in sharp contrast to how he treated Natsu whom he made earn everything he was given. This caused Natsuki's hatred of her father to fester even further believing that if her father had his way she'd be a "Helpless and weak little bitch" she would think. This would also lead to Natsuki developing a complex towards men. By seeing the relationship that her brother shared with both her father and grandfather, the closeness and nearly fraternal like bond that they shared along with the fact that all three of them treated her, in her opinion, like she was better than them, making her wish at times that she was born a boy so she wouldn't have been treated so differently. Despite this her relationship with her grandfather and brother was not nearly as strained as the one she had with her father, as she admired them both greatly. Her grandfather she treated more the way she should have treated her father with him earning her respect from an early age. This was because by the time she was born her grandfather would very rarely train due to his age, however, whenever he did train he would spar and train with them all, including Ryujin, equally. In addition to this her grandfather, unlike her father, would actually discipline her for the mischievous things that she'd do such as the times he spanked her severely whenever she'd commit any wrongdoings like the time she senselessly and mercilessly slaughtered some of his cows just for the fun of it. Her reasoning for this was that she wanted to test her strength wanting to see if she could kill them with her bare hands with her justification being that all the cows that she killed would all eventually be killed and eaten by them anyway. As she explained that to her grandfather he blew his top in a fit of rage as he grabbed her and threw her over his knee. After he had finished he made sure to sit her down and calmly explain to her why he did it. Telling her that those cows did not belong to her therefore she had no right to do anything with them without his permission, while also trying to teach her the value of life saying that all living things deserved to enjoy life as much as they could no matter how short or doomed their lives were. It was spankings like these when she was younger, putting her through physical labor around the farm as she got older, which her father never did telling her it was a man's job as an excuse, along with the stern and understanding way he would scold her for things all led to her greater respect for her grandfather versus her father. She however held a vastly different relationship with her younger twin brother, Natsu, then the ones she had with either her father or her grandfather. Nearly from the moment of the twins birth they were inseparable from one another while sharing a close and loving bond uncommon amongst brothers and sisters. They never fought, rarely argued and did everything together including playing together, training together, sleeping together, and even bathing together. The two would also constantly express to eachother how much they loved eachother, too much so as far as their father was concerned but as usual with things like this concerning his daughter he did nothing about it. Despite all of this the four of them were an extremely close and loving family that was completely devoted to eachother for over twelve years. This would all change when one day Natsuki came to a life altering decision that affected her entire family. It had only been a few months after the twin's twelfth birthday, at the time both Ryujin and Natsu's attention was completely devoted to the intense sparring session that they were currenty engaged in as both Natsuki and her grandfather watched in awe. The elder Nandeya, now in his nineties, watched the session with a high level of joy as he watched his two male descendants put on quite the battle. In the twelve plus years since the twins birth the elder Nandeya had aged only a little. With his hair now nearly all gray, he also constantly used a cane as well as constantly being hunched and shrinking a few inches from six feet one inch to five feet eight inches. Natsuki on the other hand had grown to have a exceptionally muscular and toned athletic build for a twelve year old looking alot like her mother. At this point she was five feet seven inches and had most of her blonde hair cut to shoulder length with the exception of two long braids down to her calves with white wrapping close to the tips and her black War Eagle feathers tied to the tips. Her current attire consisted of of black combat like boots, tattered denim blue jeans with the left leg cut halfway up her thigh, a baggy white t shirt with red letters that spelled out NANDEYA, with a black sports bra underneath, as well as black riding gloves, gold war eagle feather earrings and a red headband with the Pachea symbol on the front. This particular sparring session that the two were spectating on was a very special one as compared to the usual. With this session, unlike any between them before, Ryujin had his hands full with his son as Natsu was currently matching his father blow for blow to the astonishment of both Natsuki and her grandfather. Natsu had grown to have a well chiseled muscular physique as well, being five feet seven inches tall also with a crop of shaggy brown hair on the top of his head. His current attire was black cargo shorts, black combat boots, no shirt currently, black wrist bands, black stud earrings and the same traditional Pachean head band worn by every one of his family members. Ryujin for his part hadn't aged very much in the past twelve years aside from a few graying hairs on his head and goatee. What he was currently wearing was dark brown cargo pants, black riding gloves, no shirt and his same headwear. While watching, or in Ryujin's case participating in, this fight the other three family members felt an enormous amount of pride over Natsu's display not the least of which was Ryujin who, as a father, couldn't have been happier. The source of this overwelming jubilation was the fact that, although Natsu still wasn't stronger than him, Ryujin now knew that his son had surpassed him as a warrior in every way. Ryujin knew that as strong as he was when he was Natsu's age, that it might not be close to how strong Natsu is. What Ryujin was also learning from this session was that Natsu had long since been ready to join the Military and was only a matter of time before he was ready to wield Seishintama or maybe even Dragon's Extract. The only reason why he hadn't started training Natsu on how to use Imperial Arms was because of the severe danger there was for pre adults using them. For Natsu's hand in this sparring session he was completely convinced that his father was holding back on him, maybe even alot more than he normally would. Natsu had already known that his father had never truly went all out on him in any of their sparring sessions and neither did Natsu very often for if he did at any point attempt to attack his father with lethal force he knew that his father would know immediately and would then go full force on Natsu which would nearly always result in massive injuries for him the very few times he did. As the father and son continued sparring Natsu, while growing irritated and having had enough of his father holding back on him, barked words at his father in middle of a flurry of punches he was throwing at him with a few of them actually hitting Ryujin.

"Who the hell do you think you're fighting against old man"

Natsu said before aiming a kick for his father's temple which Ryujin narrowly dodged just in time to receive Natsu's heel in his sternum.

"Stop fighting me like you're fighting Natsuki or you're gonna get hurt" he said as he stared at the kneeling form of his father with his hands thrown behind his head only feeling the least bit sorry.

"Well well well looky there" Ryujin said as he spit something out of his mouth before rising to his feet.

"I bet you really think you're hot shit right about now don't you?" Ryujin asked rhetorically before continuing,

"You may have gotten a lot stronger since the last time, but you still ain't nothing but an overzealous young punk, now bring your ass" Ryujin said as he beckoned his son with his hand.

"Oh still want more, fine then, your funeral" Natsu said before instantly charging towards his father.

Up until this point of their session Ryujin had fought a mainly defensive battle as he was mainly reading his son's fighting patterns on the lookout for any openings or mistakes in Natsu's erratic fighting style, with this being the reason why Natsu felt his father was holding back on him. Ryujin, being the wily combat veteran that he was, knew that his son's fighting style was constantly evolving, adapting more and more to his father's. That combined with Natsu's constantly increasing strength led to him constantly having the advantage in this fight. With Ryujin now knowing what he needed to do in order to win this fight he charged at his son with a flurry of kicks and punches, going on the offensive for virtually the first time of this session with Natsu dodging and blocking all of them.

"Now that's more like, old man" Natsu said as he caught his father's right fist,

"Show me that you're not washed..."

Was all that Natsu could get out as he had stopped mid sentence to deliver a right hook to Ryujin's chin only for him to miss completely from his father's lightning quick movement of dodging, grabbing his arm, punching him in the stomach and then thunderously slamming Natsu back first on to the ground immediately followed by a devastating elbow drop to Natsu's chest.

"Don't get cocky kid, I do this" said Ryujin as he folded his arms over his chest as he watched Natsu roll away and get back to his feet.

As Natsu got back up he spit something out before limbering himself out, popping a good portion of his bones in the process, before smiling wickedly and saying,

"GAME ON, GRANDPA",

Before charging his father renewing their fight. This caused his grandfather to yell the words,

"Ay watch your Goddamn mouth, boy",

to which Natsu simply shouted,

"Yessir",

in mid combat. As both he and Natsuki's watched the father and son's display, the elder Nandeya found a great deal of enjoyment watching the totality of his male progeny work eachother over. While the elder enjoyed this fight he noticed that his granddaughter was silently and studiously watching, not blinking as if her life depended on not missing a single moment of this fight with a look on her face that was very trance like. Worrying him a little the elder Nandeya called his granddaughter's name trying to get her attention only for her to not react to him at all.

"NATSUKI" he said louder a second time with him getting her attention this time as she turned to him almost as if someone had just awakened her suddenly from a coma.

"Yes Grandpa" she said only briefly turning to him before turning her attention back to her brother and father.

"You seem to have a lot on your mind, wanna tell me what that could possibly be?" He said as he turned his head back to the battle as well.

"I'm sorry, I was just thinking to myself how far Natsu has come, at the age of twelve he's already stronger than how strong Daddy is without Seishintama" she said while not taking her eyes off of them.

"You sure about that? Now you do realize that Ryujin is holding back right?" He asked her.

"Uhhh yeah,... so does Natsu that's why he's also holding back, even more so than Daddy is" she said.

"That much huh, then if that's the case he may even be able to beat your Dad even while he's wielding Seishintama" said the elder Nandeya.

"Although it won't be very long at all before he's able to I'm sure, I don't think he's that strong yet but...," she said before stopping mid sentence as her eyes began to fill with tears before she continued after putting a giddy smile on her face.

"To think my baby Brother has come such a long way, I can easily remember a time when Daddy would fight him with both arms tied behind his back and Natsu wouldn't be able to lay a finger on him and now..." she said as she paused to wipe away a few tears that had fallen from her eyes.

"Now he's going to defeat him" she said with a malicious smile on her face.

"Whoa whoa whoa, now there's no way that you could possibly know that, those two boys have been fucking eachother up, looks pretty even to me" said the elder Nandeya.

"Just watch" said Natsuki as she continued to watch her brother and father's battle with her grandfather joining her.

Meanwhile the sparring session between the father and son had only become even more intense as both Nandeya's were now covered in scrapes, cuts and bruises with huge smiles plastered on their faces from sheer excitement over the fight they were in. After a few moments of the two Pachean warriors sizing eachother up Ryujin, knowing that his stamina was falling faster than Natsu's and in effort to end this battle quicker, went on the offensive with a lightning fast combination of kicks and punches, some of them being dodged, some blocked and some of which Natsu was actually able to counter but Ryujin remained mainly on the offensive. This pattern continued until Ryujin landed a right jab to Natsu's nose, seeing this as an opening Ryujin, looking to finish it aimed a spinning heel kick for his son's head. Natsu, however, saw this coming and in seemingly slow-motion to him he swept Ryujin's pivot leg from under him with his own leg causing Ryujin to come crashing down hard into the ground. With his leg still not yet retracted from sweeping his father Natsu had blindingly wrapped both of his legs around the leg he swept, grapevining it, and had his father in a devastating leg hold all before they hit the ground.

"Alright Old Man it's over, say it, or Gramps is going to be walking a lot better than you for a while" said Natsu barely able to contain his excitement over what he thought was his assured victory.

"Then you better fucking do it then or you've lost" Ryujin said as he lifted his free leg before beginning to kick at Natsu.

The first kick hit Natsu directly in his face, disorienting him but not enough to cause him to lose his grip as it opened a gushing wound on Natsu's forehead right aabove his right eye slightly scaring Ryujin, only slightly because he realized Natsu hadn't released him. As Ryujin raised his foot again, about to kick Natsu a second time, Natsu having a bad feeling, and with him judging by how much the first kick hurt, that this kick was going to knock him out, due to this Natsu felt as if his father was giving him no other option, so he made his decision. "CRRRRRKKK" the loud sound of Natsu breaking Ryujin's leg echoed throughout the farm with the four Nandeya's who heard it having varying reactions to it. The elder Nandeya cringed and put his hands on his head in pain as if it was his leg that was just broken. Natsuki on the other hand had put a face of pure ecstasy the second she saw and heard her father's leg being broken as if she had just eaten the best peice of chocolate cake her grandfather could make. The moment that Natsu broke his father's leg he couldn't help but become Squimish from both the sight and sound of it. Even though he felt that his father had given him no choice in breaking his leg, other than the fact that it meant that he was the winner, Natsu did not like the fact that he just broke his father's leg, in fact despising it. Under normal circumstances, had it not been his own father, Natsu felt that he might have enjoyed this moment despite this being the first time he felt another human being break under him. The fact that Natsu felt himself only slightly enjoying this disturbed him as he felt that it was his duty to protect his family and lead them to greater heights than any of them could hope for, thus he couldn't help but feel terrible at the sight of his father rolling and wailing in pain clutching his leg.

"Arrrgghh, you little bastard, you fucking broke my leg" Ryujin said angrily as he pulled himself into a seated position and dragged himself away from Natsu.

"What do you want from me!?," said a red faced Natsu both nervously and angrily before he continued. "If I hadn't of done that I'd still be sleeping, what would you have done!?" he asked more angry now.

"What the fuck kind of question is that!?," asked an enraged Ryujin as he continued to drag himself away until he stopped by his father who began to help him up.

"I would have offered you tea, what the hell do you think I would've done!?, Of course I would've broken your leg too, now get you ass over here and help me" exclaimed Ryujin still flustered as his father continued to help him before they were both shortly joined by Natsu.

"The only difference between you and me though is..." Ryujin said as now only Natsu had held him up as the entire Nandeya family made their way back into the main house.

"That, unlike you I'm not going to pussy up, I'm breaking your leg without hesitation"

Said Ryujin as he, Natsu and Natsuki continued to make their way to the Nandeya's medical room where the elder Nandeya had already gone ahead, prepping for whatever reconstructive operation he'd have to perform on his son.

"Then explain to me why are you giving me such a hard time about it then?" asked Natsu.

"Are you kidding me?" asked Ryujin,

"Despite this literally being the proudest I have ever been in my life of you, you tell me who is gonna be happy about a GODDAMN BROKEN LEG" said Ryujin yelling the last part.

"Well for that I'm sorry but as you said that's what I had to do, but wait a second, you just said you were proud of me, do you really mean that?" asked Natsu.

"First off, never apologize for what you do in a fight, a true warrior expects that any and everything can happen to him when he enters battle. Secondly, of course I'm proud of you, today you have proven so much to me. Not only have you proven that you are far more than capable of conquering the entire Imperial Military nearly by yourself" said Ryujin as Natsu eased him on to the medical table with his face nervously red from his father's adulation.

"You've also proven that you've no doubt got the conviction to do so because when I was your age I don't think that I could've even hit my Father for real let alone do something like this" he said as he gestured with his hand towards his leg.

"Oh yes this is certainly the proudest I've ever been, not even those few moments after you were born before your Mother died can compare"

Ryujin said as he ruffled Natsu's hair causing the younger Pachea's face to turn even redder as he began to scratch the back of his head and laugh nervously.

"Gee thanks Dad..." Natsu said before being cut off by Ryujin.

"Quiet boy!, I'm not done praising you, now, as soon as I get better we're getting right back at it because your training is only going to intensify. As far as you've come, one thing I can't have happen is you becoming cocky because as I left the Empire I noticed that there was a lot of incredibly strong and young warriors entering that Military. Now ordinarily I wouldn't think this would be that much of a problem for you, but I predict that this trend will continue with the Army only continuing to get younger and stronger so much so that who knows how strong the heads of that Army will be by the time you get there. Who knows, as strong as you are and are going to get you may never find yourself a compatible Imperial Arms. So, thus far I've trained you to be the most complete warrior that you could possibly be, now that you have hit your stride and comfort zone as a warrior over the course of the next three years or so I'm going to begin to train you on how to deal with all the fuckery that those bastards in the Imperial Military with Imperial Arms could possibly throw at you and that's alot because with some of those damned things you might as well be fighting deaf and blind with hundred pound weights on each of your limbs" said Ryujin.

"Game on, I can't wait" said Ryujin as he put a sadistic on his face.

"That's my boy, you definitely have the right mindset to do whatever you want out there, I know when I was your age, as hotblooded as I was, if someone told me what I just told you, I mean I would have still went but I would have definitely thought long and hard about it, yeah farm life wouldn't have been so boring to me if I had known that" said Ryujin.

"Hell no, if anything that makes me wanna go more plus what if I wound up getting an unstoppable Imperial Arms or Dragon's Extract, it's just too much for me not to know" said Natsu.

"And besides" said Natsuki interjecting,

"With me by your side every step of the way that Empire will be scrambling trying to figure out what to do with us" she said putting the same sadistic grin on her face.

"Haa, that's adorable, Natsuki, but ABSOFUCKINGLUTELY NOT, you can forget about going too" yelled Ryujin.

"What!, why not?" yelled both Natsu and Natsuki in unison with Natsuki a little angrier.

"I've seen first hand all the things that punk ass Empire can do eager young women, literally every woman that had lived there for any period of time either was or eventually became an insufferable cunt, a whore or was MASSIVELY underutilized all of which could happen to you and, most importantly, all of which can cause you to turn into a huge weakness for Natsu something that you'll understand I can't have right?, it wouldn't be fair to Natsu" Ryujin said sternly.

The moment Ryujin said those words Natsuki sank her head quiet and impassive with her hair obscuring her eyes with her only words being a nearly inaudible,

"Yes daddy" before she abruptly turned around and just as quietly left the room.

With only Natsu, Ryujin and Ryujin's father now onlyooccupying the room Natsu spoke up,

"C'mon dad that's not fair, her last name is Nandeya just like mine, me and her together could be unstoppable, and you won't even give her that chance?" asked Natsu.

"Did I asked you for your goddamn opinion" yelled Ryujin.

"I've been on this here earth forty-five years longer than you, I don't wanna fucking hear it, plus I've been there, more than twice the total time you've been alive, there isn't a damn thing you can say that'll make me budge on this" Ryujin said with conviction.

"Now get your ass out of here so that my Father can begin fixing the mess that my Son caused" said Ryujin as he gestured towards his leg with his hand before Natsu had the chance to say anything.

At this Natsu wanted desperately to continue voicing his disapproval over his father's firm position but, knowing how adamant his father was, he knew that he'd have to damn near kill his father before he would get him to relent, something he knew his grandfather wouldn't allow which could've caused Natsu to wind up having to fight both his father and his grandfather something he really didn't want eespecially considering his father's current condition. With the outcome of this situation having him severely enraged the defeated Natsu turned and started making his way out of the room before he was stopped by his father saying,

"Oh yeah and one more thing...," which caused Natsu to angrily cringed before he turned around.

Before Natsu could react Ryujin had stood up from his position on the operating table and had planted a devastating fist into Natsu's gut causing him to fall to the floor clutching his abdomen.

"And that's for confining me to a wheelchair you little asshole" said Ryujin before he plopped back down on to the medical losing his balance.

After Natsu had a few moments to recover he simply stood up and continued his way out of the room, silently, now angrier than ever with the only thought on his mind being to find something, anything, to punch repeatedly. As he watched his son leave the room Ryujin couldn't help but begin to think to himself,

"T _hat's my boy, I can feel the rage that that boy has in him, he wanted to rip my head off, and the fact that he didn't means that he has tons more discipline than I ever had, to think my son might truly be the perfect warrior, haa!, and all this time I thought I was"._

Ryujin's daydream was then drastically cut short however as his father had suddenly, and without warning, stabbed him in the rear end with a sedation needle.

"Owwww you psychotic old faaaaa..." said Ryujin slurring the last word as he passed out.

"Nite nite" was all the Elder Nandeya said the as he put a maniacal grin on his face before he started preparations for the surgery.

The second that Natsu had exited the operating room he made a beeline for the nearest exit of the house. He needed to blow off alot of pent up rage that had accumulated over his argument with his father, with him knowing that he couldn't break anything in his grandfather's house without consequences, he headed straight outside with his destination being the forested area that surrounded the farm, his intention being to create a load of firewood, inadvertently. As soon as Natsu arrived at his destination he immediately noticed that it looked as if he had already been there. Several trees had been either uprooted or broken in half, several boulders had been turned to rubble, several craters scattered across the ground along with several surrounding plants having been turned up all over. With Natsu knowing that it couldn't have been him that was the cause of this devastation, he immediately began to search for what was, hoping that it was some large Danger Beast on a wild rampage so that he could take all of his frustrations out on it and then eat it. After several moments of surveying the area, with him unable to find its origin, Natsu was suddenly alerted to the sound of, to him, what sounded like a smaller animal sniffing around. It wasn't long before he found the origin of that sound and to his shock, it was Natsuki curled into a ball, sobbing her heart out. Immediately concerned, Natsu quickly approached Natsuki, but he was then stopped abruptly in his tracks by her shouting the words,

"GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM ME, NATSU" she said threateningly.

Natsu, being completely taken aback as his sister had never spoken to him in that tone before, tried his best to compose himself before he spoke again.

"Listen Natsuki, I know you're pissed about what dad said..." Natsu started to say before Natsuki abruptly cut him off,

"FUCK DADDY" she shouted before she continued to erupt on her brother.

"My entire life that son of a bitch has done nothing but hold me back and treat me like a little spoiled bitch, I can't fucking take it anymore, I'm soooo fucking done. Which is exactly why I'm leaving this fucking place, maybe the outside world won't discriminate against me just because I'm a woman like my own damn family" she said.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa hold on a sec you just said you're running away from home? Calm down Natsuki, now I know you're mad but leaving is the last thing you wanna do, Dad said that this world is an incredibly hostile and unforgiving place, especially to young women, if you leave now there's is no way that you could su...,"

Was all Natsu could say as he was once again cut off by his sister with this time it being her slapping him across his face, completely catching him by surprise.

"Don't you fucking even finish that damn sentence, you're no better than he is, you think I'm weak, FUCK YOU NATSU" she shouted with tears welling up in her eyes.

After recovering from Natsuki's surprisingly painful slap while listening to her tantrum Natsu, while trying his best to control the anger that had been growing inside him, tried even further to reach his incensed sister as he spoke.

"Listen Natsuki, calm your ass down, taking your frustrations out on me is the last thing you wanna do, I'm not the one, plus I'm...," Natsu said as he was again cut off by Natsuki slapping him.

Natsu, now full of rage, said, "Alright, now that is the last time you will EVER hit me" trying to keep his composure with his angry sister.

"STOP ME!" she said almost seemingly after she threw a lightning quick slap aimed for the same area she had just slapped twice previously.

This time however Natsu caught her arm mid swing and returned a punch to her nose before she could react sending her falling to the ground as she also elicited a small yelp in pain. Immediately filling with regret the second he saw his sister's beautiful face bloodied by his right fist, Natsu hastily reached his hand out trying to help his sister up before apologizing to her. He however never got that chance because the second he put his hand out Natsuki had already recovered and, after putting a purely monstrous grin on her face, in Natsu's opinion, had planted her right fist deep into his abdomen. That punch had hurt Natsu so much that he felt it was far and away the hardest he had ever been hit in his life with his father or grandfather never coming close to that during training. He had no time to recover however or think much past that because almost instantaneously after that punch Natsuki connected with an equally devastating kick to the right of his face sending him tumbling for several feet into a pile of rocks and tree branches. It was at this moment that Natsu now understood why Natsuki was so furious, she was heartbroken in fact. Here she was with an incredible amount of power just for those that were closest to her to mock her for it and he was just as guilty. It was then that Natsu made up his mind he would right the wrongs that had been done to Natsuki, if she really wanted to do this then he would fight her at his full strength, he knew that both of them had a load of anger towards vent anyway. Therefore the moment that Natsu had recovered and then rose to his feet he immediately charged Natsuki unleashing an offensive onslaught of kicks and punches, all of which were gracefully dodged by her. The way she seemed to move to Natsu looked like she was dancing with everyone one of the movements she'd make to dodge one of his kicks or punches being so elegant and fluid, which only vexed Natsu tremendously. With Natsu's frustration causing him to completely forget about the whole reason why he wanted to fight Natsuki in the first place as he was now solely focused on trying to hit his sister. Natsu's anger was only further exacerbated by the fact that the whole time she was dodging Natsu's attacks Natsuki had a purely gleeful smile on her bloodstained face, with his thinking being that he was giving it his all and he didn't even know if she was even trying. Soon, after moments of her dodging him in which about halfway through she began to giggle sheepishly which further angered Natsu causing him to say,

"Are you gonna sit there and dance like a little a fucking pixie all day or are you gonna fight me you miserable fucking cunt", out of pure frustration.

Unbeknownst to Natsu those words set off a fuze in Natsuki because up until this point she had been enjoying this fight with her brother. This was the very first time in her life that Natsuki had ever gotten the chance to test all of the training that her grandfather had given her out in an actual fight. From Natsuki's view this "Beautiful" moment that she was sharing with her brother, that she loved so much, had just been ruined by Natsu's harsh words towards her. At that moment Natsuki lost all sense of reason and began to attack Natsu relentlessly and at a lightning quick pace with a barrage of kicks and punches all while making animalistic grunts and screeches. At first Natsu did his best to defend against his sister, whom was now on the offensive, and he had managed to avoid all of her offense until, after a few moments of him dodging and painfully blocking her attacks, she managed to catch his arm from a counter punch he sent her way. With his left arm now very securely in the vice like grip of her right hand she then, almost instantaneously, followed that up with a devastating spinning back fist, which she strengthened by using the added momentum from the force of his punch against him, to Natsu's left cheek with her left fist sending him flying a few feet away. Much like Natsuki's earlier landed strikes Natsu had never felt pain so intense with this hit being considerably more painful the her first few strikes. Upon his crashing Natsu created another pile of debris as his body had been thrown through a few saplings causing them to break and fall on to him. It wasn't until when Natsu had started to try to make it to his feet that he realized how much damage Natsuki had inflicted upon him at which point he realized that this fight he was having with his sister was over with Natsuki being the victor. Although he had known and accepted this fact it wasn't going to stop him, with his pride as a fighter far out weighing any sense of reason he otherwise would have had, he was going to keep fighting until he could not longer stand. Therefore the moment that Natsu made it to his feet, after a bit of struggling, he immediately charged towards Natsuki again, this time with a crazed expression on his face. The moment that she realized that Natsu was struggling to his feet Natsuki immediately began to feel a great deal of remorse over her actions feeling that she had let her anger for her father cause her to take it all out on her brother, whom she far and away cared for most in this world. Those feelings of guilt and remorse did not last long as the were replaced by surprise as her brother began to attack her again completely catching her off guard. It didn't take her long at all to realize that, now that she had injured him, Natsu was now attacking her with complete reckless abandon, as if they were fighting to the death. She also managed to realize this the second Natsu connected with that right hook to her left cheek. This hit not only snapped Natsuki out of the remorse she was feeling for her brother but it also reignited the rage that she had towards her father out again. With Natsu's fist still planted firmly in her cheek she then turned her face towards his with an absolutely demonic look on her face as she lost all of her sense of reason and became as lost in this fight as Natsu. With this fight now renewed Natsuki immediately forced her brother's fist back with her own face and, with the same demonic look on her face, she immediately began an offensive onslaught, striking at him with incredible speed using every part of her body that she could hit him with. Initially Natsu was successful in evading his sister's savage blows but with his condition already being badly injured and fatigued as compared to Natsuki and with her fighting more fiercely than she had at any previous point during their fight, it only took mere moments before she began to connect with her blows. The first blow that she managed to hit him with was a devastating back elbow strike to his forehead causing an even bigger gash where Ryujin had hit him, she followed this up with a knee to his midsection causing him to cough up blood once again, she continued her assault, immediately as he stumbled forward, with a kick to the side of his head sending him hurtling into a large rock formation several feet away landing in a crumpled heap of himself. Still, despite all his injuries and the blood that flowed from his wounds that formed small puddles on the ground, Natsu began to slowly struggle to his feet with the assistance of the boulder he crashed into. Seeing this caused Natsuki to scream the words,

"STAY THE FUCK DOWN!" out of pure rage to her brother with tears streaming down her face.

Natsu, completely ignoring her, simply put a crazed grin on his face before making it to his feet and going into a defensive stance. The second that Natsu did this Natsuki let out a horrible scream heard throughout the woods before charging towards her brother with a murderous look on her face. The moment Natsuki reached her brother she immediately planted her bare left foot into his jaw causing his head to bounce off the rock making a loud crashing sound. She then continued to to kick him several more times in his face all while making primal animalistic grunts, but through all of this punishment however he still managed to remain on his feet, a point that only seemed to infuriate Natsuki even further. She then began to deliver more crushing strikes to his torso with a long series of kicks, punches, knees and elbows as she continued to pound on her brother causing cracks on the boulder he was propped up against. Natsuki continued to beat on her brother's lifeless body pinned up against the wall for several moments before she realized that he wasn't fighting back and was literally out on his feet. The moment she realized this, right as she was about to deliver a right fist to his face, with her finally coming out of the blood lust that she was in, she immediately began to feel a great deal of remorse and sorrow all over again. She realized that she had been holding him up with her left hand while she was beating him with her right as she then began to survey the devastating damage she had inflicted upon Natsu. In addition to all the the cuts, scrapes and bruises that had accumulated all over his body, she had ruined, in her opinion, his beautiful perfect face as his left eye was swollen shut and his right eye not too far behind it. His nose was nearly broken and his lips busted with him bleeding from the mouth from what she was sure was not only the damage she had inflicted there but also from internal injuries that she had caused. Upon h er realisation of her actions Natsuki immediately released Natsu from her grasp, almost as if he were on fire, allowing his body to slide the ground in slumping heap, still leaning against the wall. As soon as she did that she began to look at her hands in disbelief as if she was unable to accept the fact that she just did this to her beloved brother. She stood there for a few seconds in complete silence, looking at her hands while quivering before she let on another gut wrenching scream as she began to sob uncontrollably while collapsing to her knees.

 _"What have i done"_ she said to herself while still crying,

 _"I've let my rage over what daddy said make me hurt you"_

 _Sh_ e said, more to herself then to him, as she began to caress his left cheek that she had bruised before she rested her forehead on his.

"I'm so sorry Natsu it was the fact that father wouldn't let us be together why I was angry in the first place and now I've done this to you, I'm such a bitch" she said as more tears flowed.

Feeling devastated over what she had done Natsuki had now completely made up her mind on what she felt she needed to do and, after giving her unconscious brother a long a passionate kiss all the while sobbing her heart out, she stood up, wiped her tears away, and then turned and began to walk away from Natsu.

* * *

It had been nearly a day since Natsu and Natsuki's fight and still, Natsu had yet to regain consciousness as he continue to lay on the floor of the wooded area. After a while two Forest Jackals had come upon Natsu's body, cautiously sniffing the area for any dangers. Seemingly deeming the area safe the two dogs began to sniff at Natsu's body at first before they began to lick at his wounds before they began to nibble at him one on his torso the other gnawing at his heels. The two Jackals weren't eating away at him very long before he awoke with a start, immediately and instinctively punching the one that was chewing on his chest and kicking the one gnawing on his heels with his free leg. The strikes that he had delivered to the Jackals, while not severely injuring them, caused them both to let out loud yelps before they scattered away with their tails between their legs. With it being adrenaline that sprung him awake it took a few moments for all the injuries that Natsu had acquired to remind him of their presence and when they did it caused Natsu to grunt loudly in pain which echoed throughout area. With every move he'd make causing him extreme pain Natsu simply decided to lay where he was, unmoving, and began to reflect on what exactly had happened to him. If he hadn't been there experiencing it firsthand Natsu would have never believed that Natsuki could have even become this strong at this point, but she was and much stronger than him. Natsu did feel that she definitely had the potential to be one of the strongest warriors there was but, considering the fact that their father refused to train her, he thought it was impossible for her to be stronger than him simply off of their grandfather's training and determination. It was at this time that the devastating realisation hit Natsu and when it did something happened to Natsu that he couldn't remember of the last time it happened, he cried. In this instance Natsu realized just really what Natsuki was, which was exact copy of him with the only difference between them being that she had far more motivation and less to lose than he did. For her entire life he had known that their father had never even considered Natsuki to be a fighter thinking of her more as daddy's little princess, with him spoiling and pampering her her whole life. Natsuki of course hadn't helped herself out in that at all as she played up every bit to being "Daddy's Little Girl" to the point where, even though he knew that she'd train with their grandfather occasionally, he thought that, other then learrning how to defend herself, she wasn't very interested in fighting at all. He always figured that her spoiled attitude was who she was which caused him to always treat her like he worshipped her instead of treating her like a training partner. He also thought that the only reason why she ever wanted to train with him and their father, and to a greater extent, wanted to go to the Empire with him, was so that she could spend as most time with him as possible as she had been so clingy to him, something he hadn't minded. Now he knew, via the state that he was currently in, that it was all a facade that she, for whatever reason which he did not know, perpetuated to their father. Realizing this fact also made Natsu very angry over what he and his sister could have accomplished if circumstances, like their father, and Natsuki being a brat, hadn't gotten in their way. It made Natsu even more angry at the thought of what he and Natsuki could've accomplished together if they had been training together their whole life, he was sure both of them would have been much stronger which he was sure would've led to the name of the Nandeya Twins being something that was known and feared throughout the entire world. With Natsu still not having gathered enough strength to move with him only currently able to continue to lie where he was, shedding tears, and angrily fuming, with him periodically beating on the ground with his fist, over the lost prospect of what he and his sister could have accomplished together. Natsu would continue to lay where he was, fuming, for several more moments until he made a conscious decision to himself. He made up his mind that no matter what he would one day meet his sister again and when he did he would be just as strong as her and together they would easily live their mother's dream of her children ruling the world, together. Natsu, now feeling that he had recovered enough, began to drag himself towards a partially destroyed tree all the while grunting and wincing from the stinging pain that accompanied every move that got him closer to the tree. After dragging himself for fifteen feet Natsu reached his goal and, using the tree to help pull himself up and through immense pain, he managed to make it to his feet. As soon as Natsu made it to his feet he immediately began to survey his surroundings and the devastation he and his sister had left behind before finding a broken tree branches about six feet long near him. Natsu then, using the tree for support, lowered his body back to the ground so that he could pick up the tree branch and try to use it to help himself up testing it's strength in supporting him. With the branch being strong enough to support Natsu's weight he immediately, using the branch, his left arm, and his right leg, began to painfully make his way home, inwardly thanking God that Natsuki only decided to break opposite limbs instead of ones on the same side which would have made this trip back home nearly impossible. Meanwhile, back on the Nandeya farm, both Ryujin and his father were on the verge of insanity searching for both Natsu and Natsuki. It had been a very usual thing for the two of them to disappear for long periods of time, off playing somewhere, but they'd always be back by dinner time as if they could smell the food from where ever they were playing. It had only been a couple minutes after the elder Nandeya had finished dinner before he and Ryujin, from a wheelchair he had crafted, began to call, or technically shout, for them without receiving an answer. After a few monents of calling them the two elder Pachea men began searching the immense farm for the two wayward pre-teens. Splitting up both Ryujin and his father each searched a half of the large compound before meeting back up at the main house. After reporting to eachother that they couldn't find the two lost children the elder Nandeya whistled very loudly. Within seconds of that the Nandeya family's trusted 8 year old Blood Caniform, Hayouta, came barking his way towards the two Pachean men.

"Calm down boy" said the elder Nandeya causing the hound, sensing the stress in his voice, to stop in its tracks and sat at attention.

"Good boy, Hayouta, now, both Natsu and Natsuki are missing and we need you to...,", said the elder Nandeya before being cut off by Hayouta bolting off away from them and barking.

"WAIT!, you stupid ass mutt" he said as he chased after the dog.

Both Ryujin and his father followed after Hayouta who had ran all the way into to the forest that surrounded the farm. With both of them still being a ways behind him it took them a while to catch up to the hound and as soon they did they were both extremely shocked at the sight they saw. Hayouta was whimpering as he licked away at a semi-conscious Natsu, collapsed on the forest floor. Seeing this, both Ryujin and his father rushed towards him with Ryujin literally jumping out of his wheelchair reaching Natsu.

"Natsu, what the hell happened to you boy and where's your sister" Ryujin said frantically while helping Natsu's sit up, more worried about Natsuki than Natsu.

"Father..." was all Natsu could say before he lost consciousness again.

"We've got to get him back right now!, he could be gravely injured" said the elder Nandeya.

"Fuck that, what about Natsuki!" Ryujin said angrily.

"Listen Ryujin, what ever happened to her I'm sure Natsu knows and if we don't take care of him now we could lose both of them" Ryujin's father said.

Ryujin wanted desperately to protest, with him both worried and frantic, needing to know what happened to his little princess, he was still able to compose himself enough to realize that his father was right and that they needed to tend to Natsu but he was still furious however over the fact that Natsuki was still missing, so much so that he immediately shattered a nearby tree with a punch out of frustration. All Ryujin's father could do was shake his head in disbelief at his son's display of emotion before he slung his bloodied grandson over his shoulder and began to rush his way home with Ryujin wheeling himself not far behind him. Upon their arrival in the medical room of the Nandeya house the elder Nandeya immediately began to treat his grandson numerous injuries all of which he documented from top to bottom. Two severely swollen eyes, a broken nose, a busted lip, a dislocated left shoulder, a dislocated right elbow, a shattered right wrist, a broken left tibia, fibula and ankle as well as numerous lacerations and contusions literally from head to toe and a even few bite marks.

"It must have been some type of powerful Danger Beast that did this to him" said the elder Nandeya.

"Are you kidding me!?," said Ryujin,

"No danger beast could do THIS to MY son" Ryujin said emphatically.

"You got a better explanation because I'm all ears I'm sure no human could do this to him, the boys a fucking demon" replied Ryujin's father.

"It had to be those bastards from the Empire trying to get their revenge on me, I swear if those pussies hurt one hair on my daughter's head I'm going to burn that fucking place to the ground" Ryujin said angrily.

"Now I think that's unlikely, those two weren't even alive when you and Karin left they shouldn't even know who the hell they are let alone do something like this to them, if they came that far to find you why not just come here?" said the elder Nandeya as he continued to work on Natsu.

"That is a good point, Dad, but do have a better explanation for what could've possibly happened to them?" asked Ryujin.

"No I don't, we're just going to have to get this boy up and going again so he can tell us exactly what the fuck happen" Ryujin's father said before he injected Natsu in the arm with a syringe.

The second he did this Natsu sprung awoke and instinctively punched his grandfather in the face sending him to the floor.

"HOLY SHIT!" shouted Ryujin out of pure surprise at the sight he had just witnessed.

"Oh fuck, grandpa I'm so sorry, are you alright." said Natsu.

"God damned violent ass child what the hell's the matter with you?" said the Nandeya elder right before he slapped Natsu upside the head instinctively, temporarily forgetting about all of Natsu's injuries.

"Dammit, now I'm sorry, what day of the week is it boy" said the elder Nandeya as he shined a small flashlight into Natsu's eye's.

Natsu, both suffering from a renewed headache and double vision from his grandfather's hit, blinked twice and slightly shook his head in an effort to stir himself before holding his head in his right hand in agony prior to answering his grandfather's question.

"It's Monday, rrrrrrrrggh, no, I''ve had to have been out for at least a day so I'm gonna say it's Tuesday" said Natsu, groggy, and through gritted teeth.

"Wow, well OK about that, then what in God's name happened to you boy?" his grandfather inquired.

Upon hearing his grandfather's question Natsu's already pained expression turned into an even more somber and depressed one.

"I don't know if you really want to know this it could devastate both of you, I know it devastated me" Natsu said sorrowfully.

"Nnnooooo" said the elder as if he already knew what Natsu was about to say but was still in disbelief of it.

"Wait what!?" said Ryujin, perturbed, before he continued,

"You know something I don't old man?" he finished.

"Of course I do and if you had have opened your eyes you would've too" said the elder Nandeya. "Alright what the fuck's going on here" Ryujin demanded.

"If what I fear might have happened, happened, it was Natsuki that did this to him" Ryujin's father responded.

"No fucking way" said Ryujin.

"And that's the whole fucking problem right there" interjected Natsu,

"You're damn right it was her that did this to me and it's all your fault, if you hadn't spent her whole life treating her like a little spoiled princess our family would be well on its way to ruling the world" said Natsu.

"What in the hell are you talking about?" Ryujin responded angrily,

"You mean to tell me that Natsuki, who has only been trained sparingly by a lifelong farmer, was able to do this to you, someone who was trained vigorously and religiously by the strongest officer in the history of the Empire, you must not have been trying to defend yourself properly out of fear of hurting your sister" said Ryujin.

"Oh fucking please I wouldn't let my mother, God rest her soul, do this to me and I'd give anything to meet her" proclaimed Natsu.

"Bullshit" yelled Ryujin,

"That girl doesn't even like fighting, there's no way...," he said before being cut off by Natsu. "And it was you thinking like that that led to this explosion, she loved you so much that she never wanted to disappoint you which is why she played up to the act of being you're perfect little spoiled princess that never did anything wrong and did everything she could to make you happy despite the fact that she was secretly a demon. She deprived that warrior side of her so much so that it burned and ate away at her insides which is what led to what she did to me..., what she felt she had to do..., to us" Natsu said with tears welling up in his eyes.

The revelation of Natsu's words hit Ryujin heavy as he fell out of his wheelchair and collapsed to the floor and began to beat on it out of pure rage _. "Dammit he's got to be fucking right, why else would she be missing unless if he's blatantly lying to me"_ _,_ Ryujin thought,

But given the fact that Ryujin knew that Natsu loved his sister possibly even more than Ryujin loved his daughter, he didn't consider it a remote possibility past that. It was then that the realization hit him, his little princess had not only been living a lie for most of her life but now she had so selfishly run away from home and it was all his fault. He knew though, however, that he couldn't help himself from giving his daughter preferential treatment her whole life, from the moment that she was born Ryujin always thought that Natsuki was a mirror image of her mother thus this was always a point of weakness for him. It also didn't help that Natsuki was the last thing of this earth that Karin had laid her hands upon as she was dying, despite the fact that she was the first born twin. This fact helped greatly to lead to Ryujin believing, her whole life, that Natsuki was incredibly special in her very own way. This thought was strengthened by the fact that, even though she had hardly ever asked her father to train her, she had shown to be incredibly talented in various ways. She was incredibly intelligent, so much so that from an early age she had learned how to completely care for her grandfather's farm every need simply from observing him and her father, which eventually led to her becoming better, quicker, and overall more efficient at these daily tasks than anyone on the farm. This would lead to Natsuki being put in charge of operating the farm under her grandfather's supervision since the age of five which was, with all the physically demanding labor that it required, what Ryujin had thought was the main reason behind Natsuki's impressively chiseled physique.

"And I can't believe I'm saying this but..." said Natsu snapping Ryujin out of his self pity.

"Natsuki was the best of all of us and now she's lost and it's all your fault" yelled a tearful Natsu.

"You know what, you're right, it is my fault I did push her away by not allowing her to be the beast that she had always been, but I cannot take full responsibility for this" said Ryujin.

"Why the fuck not, you're her Father and the one person in this world that she most wanted to please" Natsu replied angrily.

"I'll tell you why" Ryujin started angrily,

"It's because neither Dad ,who trained her, or me, who she loves the most, were nowhere near as close to that girl as you were" said Ryujin.

"You two were fucking inseparable, you still shared the same room and even still shared the same bunk bed despite my constant offerings for seperates. You ate together, often bathed together and would often train together, which is why I'm so upset" Ryujin said.

"What in the hell do you mean by that, old man" said Natsu. "Oh you don't know then I'll fucking explain it to you, as close as you two were, there is no goddamn way, especially considering how well you've been trained, that you couldn't come tell me that she was this strong, huh, because if you did just once things would have turned out vastly different, for starters I wouldn't have wasted so much time training your lousy ass when I could have been training her" said Ryujin.

"What the hell are you talking about?" shouted Natsu.

"That might be true and all but never once did I know she was this strong, all this training that you think that we've been doing together was nothing but a brother and sister playing together and in all that time she never showed me that level of power, hell you should ask Grandpa, he's the one who trained her, he should have known" Natsu said in defense of himself.

"See now I'm gonna have to stop right there before you say anything Ryujin" said the Nandeya elder. "I have told both of you fools not once but many times that that girl could possibly be a serious threat if she were ever trained properly, but neither one of you ass clowns ever wanna listen to me" he said rather perturbed.

"I'll admit..." said Natsu,

"... I didn't listen to you because I would have never in a million years thought that my sister would ever hide something like that from me which I can now clearly see that she did" said Natsu.

"Well then what's your excuse Ryujin" said his father.

"But all the training sessions that I sat in on between you two, she never displayed anything like that there is just no way" said Ryujin.

"Well you better fucking believe it" said the elder. "I guess for what ever reason she held herself back for quite awhile" he finished.

"I know why" said Natsu, "It was because she was so in love with the way that you treated her, her whole life, that she never wanted to disappoint you and could never imagine you treating her any other way despite her desperately wanting you to" Natsu said.

"Nooo" said Ryujin out of frustration.

"I wouldn't have cared if she was that strong, hell I probably would've pampered her even more but still, even if I had known, I doubt I'd have been able to train that girl with the same abandon that I trained you with all these years" said Ryujin.

"Fucking really, you gotta be shitting me, why the hell not?" asked Natsu.

"Get the fuck off my damn back, you didn't know you're Mother and how special she was and that girl's a spitting image of her" Ryujin angrily responded.

The room immediately fell silent for moments following that statement from Ryujin before Natsu spoke up again.

"Look at us were pathetic, all along we thought she was the one that was weak when it was actually us" he said.

"You're goddamn right son" Ryujin said as he limped over to Natsu.

With him placing his hand upon his son as soon as he reached him he continued,

"Which is exactly why you and I are gonna start to make this up to her immediately" he said sternly.

"And how in the hell would you say we go about doing that Father" Natsu said sarcastically.

"First were going to get our broken asses well again and then it begins" said Ryujin.

"Then what begins" replied Natsu.

"Your Sister may be gone now but she won't be gone forever she just needs time away from us which is why you and I are going to train like never before until that day comes and hope that her strength hasn't left us too far behind" Ryujin said.

"Oh game fucking on, does this mean that you're gonna stop fighting me like you're fighting you're grandmother when we train" said Natsu.

"Watch your damn mouth boy" both Ryujin and his father said almost in unison before Ryujin continued on.

"If, at any point before now, I had've decided to go all out on you, I might have accidentally killed you and that shit wouldn't have been good for anybody" said Ryujin.

"Haa!, I'd doubt that very seriously but whatever old man" said a cocky Natsu.

"Alright boy we'll see how you feel about that when I heal in half the time it takes you to" Ryujin responded.

"Whoa whoa whoa that's not fucking fair l'm in way worse shape than you" replied Natsu.

"And who's fucking fault is that, now listen I'm sure she did this to you only because you had to have decided to piss her off while she was already pissed, she IS her mother's daughter which means she has a very fiery temper, you should've known fucking better, hell, I still have a hard time believing in all the time you two are together the she's never once shown you this strength, I mean think long and hard about it in all those years she's never once showed you any flash of her true power" asked Ryujin.

Heeding his father's words Natsu thought long and deep, searching his memories for any moment he could think of where his sister exhibited strength close to his and in all his inner searching he couldn't find anything at all. Just as he was about give up thinking about it, one thought came to his mind from in incident that had happened a little under a year ago. A moment that based on the details he knew he could never share with his father. It was a moment where Natsuki's emotions had taken over her, but Natsu had for the most part disregarded this due to the weakened state he had been in due mainly from him training all day. Knowing he wouldn't tell his father the truth Natsu then said,

"The only things I can think of are a few times while we were playing where she might have shown her true self but I was always already fatigued from training that I could never really tell" said Natsu hoping that his father would buy that lie that he just told.

"Fucking excuses..." Ryujin snapped,

"...And this whole time I thought I had trained you better than that, oh well, cant do anything about it now" said Ryujin before he continued to scold his son.

"You better get yourself better quick because I am not waiting on you long to get well, the second I'm ready we will both begin to rectify this mistake we made" said Ryujin with a determined grin on his face.

"Like I said before Old Man, game on, I wouldn't even care if I weren't a hundred percent" said an equally determined Natsu.

After there daring proclamations the two younger Nandeya's each locked intense gazes with eachother, staring holes through one another before they were both brought back to there senses by a sinister presence. The elder Nandeya, with both of them being distracted with eachother, had managed to sneak up on Ryujin and Natsu and, without warning while brandishing a sadistic grin, he quickly injected them simultaneously with two of his anesthetic syringes. With Natsu and Ryujin now both slowly losing consciousness the Nandeya elder said to them in a sinister voice,

"Tsk, tsk, tsk, but my dear progeny you forgot how long, arduous, painful and incredible the road to recovery can be" he said before he started laughing maniacally.

* * *

It had been three months since Natsuki's departure from the Nandeya family's farm. Within weeks of her departure both Natsu and Ryujin had fully recovered from the injuries inflicted upon them on the day of departure, with their training renewing not long afterward. With Ryujin blaming Natsuki's departure on the perceived weakness he saw between him and Natsu he began training Natsu as if he were his equal. With Ryujin now using Seishintama during their sessions it took Natsu, armed only with a service saber that Ryujin had used before he acquired Seishintama, a few weeks to be able stand up against his father's renewed power. This was exacerbated by the fact that, during their training not only would Ryujin force Natsu to fight against the spirit avatar of Seishintama, but also, whenever Natsu were able to defeat that spirit avatar, which seldomly happened, he was then forced to fight nearly the same battle again as Ryujin, only slightly weakened from the combination of the usage of Seishintama and the injuries his avatar had sustained, would then fight his son again himself. Natsu had only once ever complained about this saying that these one sided sparring sessions served no benefit to them and that his father was only doing this because of his anger at Natsu over losing Natsuki. This argument was shut down however when Ryujin reasoned that it was beneficial to both of them with it preparing Natsu on how to deal with Imperial Arms users, which they both knew was a must, in addition to also helping Ryujin due to it having been so long since he had used Seishintama that it was only then that he had realized how much weaker he had grown over the years. All this intense training between the father and son had caused a great deal of pride to well up in their patriarch. This was due to several reasons including the fact that he could see them constantly pushing their limits on a daily basis with him figuring at the rate in which they were going, in just a short amount of time they could both be unstoppable. Another reason for his pride was the fact that he could see that Ryujin and Natsu were truthfully bonding as a father and son with Ryujin seeing his son's strength growing at an alarming rate all due to his training and Natsu seeing his father fighting him at his best thus making Natsu believe his father was finally accepting him as his equal. Typically after a day's worth of these training sessions both Natsu and Ryujin would be too tired to drag themselves in for the day leaving that to task to the Nandeya elder, who made a vow that he was, "Never carry'n (their) big asses", who would then have Hayouta drag them into the house by a rope and sled. This had been the case the previous night as the two were unable to make it to their rooms thus they both slept at the threshold of the door to the house not waking until the morning and joining the Nandeya elder at the breakfast table.

"My God the dead has arisen" he said pulling his face down from the large periodically he was reading before he continued.

"You two lousy bums have an hour to finish your breakfast, wash your smelly asses and be out in the fields with me, because I smelled that shit all night I'm not smelling it all day, or I'm gonna lose my shit" said the frustrated Nandeya elder.

"Sure thing Pops" said Ryujin,

"You're just mad you cant do that too" he said.

"You're right I can't do that" said the elder Nandeya as he finished his cup of coffee and walked towards the door,

"And I also couldn't smell like that even if I didn't bathe for years" he said as he walked out the door.

"That's the smell of champions" retorted Ryujin.

Several hours later, while the three Nandeyas had been working on the fields of their farm, they were all suddenly alerted to the presence of an unexpected visitor. Immediately stopping their work, the three of them then all gathered together in anticipation of their unexpected guest. As the visitor approached, all that the three of them could make out was a human figure wearing a long black cloak that shrouded it's entire body.

"What the hell is this all about Ryujin, I'm sure you know" said the Elder.

"Beats the hell out of me, and what in the hell would make you think I'd know something about this?" asked Ryujin.

"Because everyone bit of misfortune that has befallen my farm has been because of you" responded the older Pachea.

"And exactly how is that my fault I've never messed up one thing around here" said Ryujin.

"You might not have destroyed anything around here personally but you kids have caused property damage in the thousands" responded Ryujin's father.

Just as Ryujin was about to make his retort he was interrupted by the arrival of their unknown visitor who now stood several feet from the three Pachean males still completely shrouded behind a long and thick black priest style hooded robe. All that they could tell of this person was that they were between the heights of Ryujin and Natsu, carried a long metal staff and of medium frame before this person grasped the hood of the robe and pulled it back to reveal this person to be a woman, a Pachean woman. This caused all of the Nandeya men to gasp in utter shock at the site before them, a Pachean woman, unmistakable by her tanned complexion, green eyes, and dark gold hair color with two pairs of dark brown barrettes, with red War Eagle feathers connected to the tips of each, on each side of her head along with the traditional Pachean bandana tied around her neck like necklace with the clan symbol hanging from it like a charm as well as red War Eagle feather earrings. She was seemingly in her early twenties with tears flowing from her eyes as she said,

"I cant believe it, after I've searched for so long, I've finally found you" the woman said before falling to her knees sobbing.

This brought the three Nandeya men out of their initial shock causing them all to both instinctively and confusedly rush to comfort her. With his hand resting on her back in a comforting the elder Nandeya said,

"Dear child, its ok, now please come inside since you've obviously made such a long journey just to come see us, I'm sure you're hungry right" he asked to which she nodded while still sobbing.

"Ryujin, Natsu please take this young lady in the house and take her belongings for her while I prepare dinner" said the elder.

"Yes Pops" said Ryujin and Natsu one after another,

"Good, dinner will be ready in one half hour Miss...?" said the elder, asking her for her name.

"Oh my God, I'm so sorry, where are my manners, my name is Lusantha Auraneka Ragyokuro" she said in the sweetest voice.

"Dont worry about it, my boys will take care of you I'm sure you're tired you can tell us all about yourself over dinner so we'll talk then" the elder said as he went into the house seconds before the rest of them did.

Once inside the house she removed her robe, finally revealing her full frame to them for the first time causing Natsu to gasp in shock at how beutiful he thought she was. She was six feet tall and of slightly larger than medium frame with most of her weight in her thighs, hips, butt and breast roughly about 150 pounds. She had long hair reaching just past her knees as well tribal tattoos on the exposed parts of leg, ankles, arms and wrists. As for her attire she wore more traditional tribal garb with a slightly larger tube top size bra like red covering with an only slightly larger brown vest cover it with her shoulders remaining bare. She also wore long brown sleeves that loosened towards her wrists that seem to be held in place by two gold bangles around each of her biceps with the bottom ones on each side being encrusted with five rubies each as well as several thinner gold bangles on each of her wrists. The rest of her outfit consisted of a long brown skirt, slit on both sides, larger on the left, a gold waistlet with a ruby just below her pierced belly button with a smaller ruby, sandals that exposed most of her feet and gold bangles around each of her ankles with a large one strap sack slung over her shoulder hanging from her back

"Thank you so much for your kindess, you have no idea how long I've been traveling" she said while handing her robe over to Ryujin.

She then handed her sack of belongings over to Natsu before stretching while making a moaning sound that Natsu couldn't help but notice.

"So uh, um how long have you been traveling?"

Said an understandably nervous Natsu as he put her cloak away with this being the first female that he'd ever met other than his sister. Just as she was about to answer Ryujin said,

"This way please" while gesturing to the dinner table,

"Oh thank you" she said as she made her way to the table before being joined by Natsu and Ryujin.

Before she could sit down however Natsu grabbed a chair and pulled it back gesturing for her to sit in it.

"You can sit here if you want Miss Ragyokuro" he said.

"Awww thank you" she said as she placed a hand on his cheek graciously causing him to blush very noticeably.

"You're such a sweetie, and you can call me Lusantha" she said in very flirtatious voice before she sat down.

"Oh, ah, you're welcome Miss Lusantha" Natsu said still very nervous and twitchy as he tucked her chair before sitting down across from her at the table.

"Oh you are just the sweetest little thing, just Lusantha please" she said in her sweetest voice while giggling.

"You'll have to excuse the boy Miss he's never been around a female other than his sister, his mother, god rest her soul, died giving birth to him" said Ryujin.

"Oh bless your sweet heart's I'm so sorry" she said with a concerned expression on her face.

"Thank you and it's okay, I do miss her every day but it helps alot with me to keep her alive through our children" said Ryujin.

"Children!?, Oh yeah, where's your daughter I'd love to meet her" Lusantha said with a cheerful expression on her face that immediately turned once she had seen the change in expression on the Nandeya's faces.

"Oh no, I'm sorry I hope I didn't remind you of a bad memory" she said in a truly apologetic tone.

"Please" Ryujin said while holding up a hand,

"Our Natsuki is away from us right now simply dealing with her own personal things and we've decided to let her have her space so that she can have some time to find herself, we're sure she'll be back once she does that" said Ryujin as he comfortingly rubbed his, still gloomy, son's head.

"Oh she will, sometimes us girls just need to be in our little world's for a while, we're very emotional and sometimes we just need to be to ourselves with our emotions so others wont get hurt through no fault of their own" she said.

The very moment that she finished that sentence she noticed that Natsu put an optimistic smile on his face which in turn made her smile quite proudly.

"Oh my, I just remembered, this young man named Natsu I believe?" she ask as she stopped while waiting on a response from Natsu, who nodded, which prompted her to continue "...asked me a question, and the answer to that question is that I've been searching this entire globe over, living as a nomad, in search of you, for well over twenty years" said Lusantha which caused both Natsu and Ryujin to yet again gasp in shock.

"Over twenty years?" said Ryujin in amazement,

"Young lady, were you orphaned?" asked Ryujin.

For the first time since her arrival Lusantha had an expression on her face that didn't include a smile as it turned into a puzzled one with a raised eyebrow as she replied,

"No, I left my village when I was a teenager, I'm 38 now" she said which caused both of their jaws to drop.

Of the thrre surprised males it was Natsu that was the first to speak up saying,

"No way, I thought you were only a little older than me your actually almost Dad's age."

"Well how old are you two" she asked as politely as she could before Ryujin responded to her,

"Well I'm 58 and the boy just turned 13 a few weeks back" he said.

This time it was Lusantha that was the one who was shocked as she said,

"Unbelievable, the only way that you can tell your even older at all is from the few gray hairs that you have" she said before Ryujin interjected with a,

"You can blame the boy for that" which caused her to giggle slightly before she turned to Natsu and said,

"And this whole time I thought, from your muscle definition and voice tone, that you were at least seventeen" she said after biting her lip.

"Gee, thanks"

Natsu said as he nervously scratched the back of his head with his face a beat red hue and just as he was beginning to think of something else to say his grandfather walked into the dining area pushing a food cart saying,

"Dinner is served kiddos".

The moment that this happened Natsu immediately got up, walked over to the cart as his grandfather sat down, and began to set the plates before he rejoined them at the dinner table. The dish that the elder had prepared was potatoes and a mixture of vegetables that he had grown along with one pound Field Bovine steaks.

"Mmmm that smells devine" said Lusantha.

"Thank you, everything you're about to eat here is 100% homegrown right on my farm" said the Nandeya elder.

"Impressive, you grow and raise all of your food?" asked Lusantha.

"Oh yeah and I wouldn't have it any other way, now, if these old ears heard right, I believe that you said you left your village when you were a teenager?" asked the Patriarch.

"Yessir, when I was seventeen" she replied.

"Well than in your village did there happen to be any more of our people there?" asked the optimistic elder piquing the curiosity of both his male descendants.

"Funny that you would say that because my home village was full of nothing but Pachean's" she responded while nervously scratching the back of her head.

"Unreal!, I thought we were all but extinct" said Ryujin.

"I cant believe it, more of us, our race lives" said the elder while fighting back tears.

"Why did you even leave?" asked Natsu on instinct.

Just as she was about to answer, looking very optimistic, the elder Nandeya interjected.

"Please Natsu, she's been on a twenty year journey obviously looking for us, let her enjoy this meal we have plenty of time to discuss that" he said.

"Sorry Grandpa, you have a point, and sorry Miss Lusantha" said Natsu while bowing his head.

"Please, it's no problem at all, and please call me Lusantha" she said nervously.

"Okay, sorry again Mi..., I mean Lusantha" Natsu said while blushing.

"Better" she said while licking her lips before taking another bite of her food.

For the rest of the dinner the quartet enjoyed a relative silence with the only chatter amongst them being jokes passed between them. After they finished their meal Natsu was the first to speak,

"Man that was real good, Grandpa, you haven't cooked like that in ages" said Natsu.

"Yeah Dad, what do WE have to do to get you to cook like that normally" said Ryujin.

"Please, both of you are more than able to prepare exactly what I did in the way I did, I dont want to fucking hear it" said the elder.

"But its not the same as when you do it" said Ryujin.

"Well then that's just too damn bad" replied the which caused Lusantha to laugh hysterically causing the three Nandeya men to turn their attention to her.

It took her a few moments during her laughing to realize that they were all staring at her with kind smiles on their faces.

"Oh I'm sorry it's just that you reminded me so much of how my father used to act" she said as her expression changed to a slightly less cheerful one.

"He was alot like you seem to be, headstrong and an unquestioned leader of his family that made sure every one of us pulled our own weight" she said more determined.

"So you lived with your family in this Village full of Pachea" said the elder Nandeya.

"Yes, It was me, my Father and Mother, both of whom passed away before I left my Village, my two Brothers and my four Sisters all of whom I was the oldest" she said.

"Before my Father, who was our Village Chief, died he hadn't named his successor before his death thus there was a huge debate between my slightly younger Brother and I over who would succeed our Father as my youngest Brother didn't want to lead, it was left between me and my middle brother. We both wanted desperately to become Village Chief, with my Brother willing to fight me for it. Now this would have been no problem for me because I know I'm stronger than my Brother its just that, before he died, my father made me swear to him that I'd never fight any of my siblings so I allowed my Brother to be our Chief. That would have been enough, as I contemplating leaving our Village then, but my Brother then wanted me to be apart of his harem wives including our sisters, something I would die before I'd let happen" she said with, for the first time since her arrival, an angered expression on her face that Natsu couldn't help but think was cute.

"That was when I decided that I would leave my village and, even if it killed me" she said as then stared at Natsu with predatory gaze as she then continued,

"I'd scour the Earth and find a young strong Pachean male, far away from my Brother's rule, that I could mold however I wanted and thus I could have my own unstoppable clan of Pachean warriors, and now, it looks like I've finally found you...Natsu" Lusantha said before liking her lips predatorily.

"Whoa whoa whoa whoa" said Ryujin.

"Wait, what!?" asked Natsu.

"Oh yes" she said as tears began to stream from her face,

"I've searched for so long with only my instincts guiding me and I've found you, our children will be otherworldly" she said while still crying.

"Wait a second, come again?" said Natsu.

"Yeah you wanna repeat that I dont think I heard you correctly" said Ryujin.

"Oh I think you heard me just fine, Natsu, you're coming with me" Lusantha said with previously unseen determination.

Natsu was genuinely shocked by Lusantha's statement and with so many thoughts now running through his head he found himself unable to form any response to her. Seeing his son's distress with this situation Ryujin was about to speak up for his son but before he had the chance to he was interrupted by his own father.

"Ha ha haaaa I fucking knew it, Haaa!, I knew from the second that you got here, from the way you've been eye banging him since you got here, the way that you talked to and even the way you've touched him, you've been wanting to jump my grandson since the moment you laid eyes on him haven't you?" asked the elder Pachea.

"How dare you" Lusantha said with her face a beat red hue from a combination of her blushing and her being flustered.

"My connection to Natsu is far more than me just wanting to "jump" him I was spiritualy guided to him from many miles away, it is our destiny to be together, we were meant for each other Natsu" she said still with a determined look on her face.

"Ooh, and your nuts!, Natsu I kinda feel a little sorry for you" said the elder.

"The only reason why I'm going to excuse the fact that you just called me crazy is because you've been so hospitable to me and the fact that the meal that you prepared, just for me, was the best that I could ever remember having over the course of my life and that's saying alot because both of my parents could throw down" said Lusantha.

"Wow, you may be nuts but at least you're not a terrible person" the elder Nandeya said in response.

Just as Lusantha was about to reply she was abruptly cut him off by a furious Ryujin.

"Wait just a goddamn minute, who the hell do think you are, coming in to my Father's house and showing such disrespect, even after he's been so kind and courteous to you, who's a guest on our farm" he said.

"Well then, if you feel that I've overstayed my welcome you can always make me leave, but know this, I'm not going anywhere without that delicious boy" she said as she licked her lips again causing the still shocked and stunned Natsu to nervously gulp.

"You crazy bitch, you're out of your goddamn mind if you think I'm gonna let you get away with that, BRING YOUR ASS it's go time" Ryujin said all while grabbing Seishintama and making his way outside.

"Oooh I'd love to" Lusantha almost sang before her voice immediately turned into low and feral growl,

"I have no problem fighting for the things I want in life" then she yelled, "THIS IS MY LIFE"

as she stood up from her chair, staff in hand, and followed Ryujin outside but not before she swiftly licked Natsu's cheek causing him to become almost paralized with an unknown feeling.

"Mmmm, I wont be long my love, soon you'll be mine" Lusantha said as she then caressed his chin as she walked away.

Natsu still stuck in the same paralyzed state as before had become increasingly frustrated at his state, he was sweating bullets, burning up, unable to move and had an incredibly painful erection.

 _"Dammit, what the fuck did that crazy cunt do to me",_ Natsu thought to himself.

His grandfather, seemingly diagnosing his grandson's problem, smiled and empathetically put his hand on Natsu's shoulder, immediately snapping him out of his condition, before he spoke.

"Gaaa lee (golly) boy" he said while giggling,

"That gal's got you all types of stirred up" he said,

"Well then, what on earth does that mean?" asked Natsu. "Boy I haven't the time, inclination or patience to explain that to you now and beside we've got to hurry up and catch the fight" said the elder.

"Oh yeah, right" Natsu said before they both hurried and made their way outside both hoping that the fight hadn't started yet.

They were both relieved upon their arrival to notice that they had arrived at their sparring field only seconds after Lusantha and Ryujin. Immediately noticing their presence Lusantha turned to Natsu and said, in that same loving voice that she seemed only to address Natsu with,

"Oh my, you've come to watch me fight, my love, how sweet, I love you sooo much" she said as she clasped her hands together and rested her cheek on them in a giddy fashion before winking at him, once again causing him to shudder.

"HEY, you crazy ass woman, keep your depraved eyes of my son, you can forget about it, he has a long life ahead of him as the world's strongest warrior and he doesn't need you or any of you bloodsucking women dragging him down" Ryujin said angrily.

"HOW RUDE!" yelled Lusantha before she seemingly disappeared before their eyes and reappeared directly in front of Ryujin with her staff in her right hand and her left planted squarely in his jaw causing him to be blown back several yards from the impact creating a dust trail.

"HOLY SHIT!" both Natsu and his grandfather said in unison.

"Bloodsucking woman thats gonna drag him down?, please, me, him and our children will rule this world" Lusantha said emphatically.

" _HOLY fuck, why in God's name is she so goddamn strong, I couldn't even see her, I can't hold back against her at all, oh well good thing I've been doing all that training with the boy otherwise I might have been rusty at this"_ Ryujin thought to himself as he picked himself off the ground.

"Alright you crazy little bitch, now you're gonna get your ass kicked"

Ryujin said as he held Seishintama straight in front of him in his right hand and his left hand grasping his right forearm. With a loud growl followed by a large wave of energy surrounding him that cause his body to blow back severely yards, however, the glowing blue form of his spirit avatar remained where his body had been.

"Oh My, this could be fun" remarked in intrigued Lusantha.

Within an instant of that remark, however, Ryujin had seemingly disappeared from view, with him reappearing with his glowing blue sword planted in the ground where Lusantha had been standing with her only barely able to dodge the blow. Before Lusantha could even react Ryujin was upon her again unleashing a devastating flurry of lightning quick slashes, which would only appear as flashes of light to the untrained eye, with Lusantha finding herself only able to dodge these attacks due to her not knowing what affect his glowing sword would have on her or her staff. After a few dodged strikes Lusantha found an opening, after dodging a strike that she thought was meant to decapitate her, she planted the end of her staff directly below Ryujin's ribcage causing him to fall back a few feet again. With her not wanting him to have any time to recover Lusantha immediately charged after Ryujin while he was still airborne but just as she was about to land a strike Ryujin had inhumanly recovered and swung at Lusantha with him grazing her as she couldn't possibly dodge in the time she had with her charging at him.

"Shit" she said flipping back a few meters from Ryujin,

Fully expecting to be on the defensive as she expected the slash from his sword to have some effect on her. She then instinctively touched the wound just for her to find out that not only was there no bleeding from the wound, but that she wasn't even wounded despite her knowing that she was "cut". She however wouldn't have much time to think on this as Ryujin was immediately on her again forcing her on the defensive again, though, after only a few movements Lusantha immediately fell ill forcing her to vomit which she wound up strategicly aiming for, and connecting with Ryujin's face especially in his eyes blinding him thus giving her a second to recover. "Uuuugghhh, you poisoned me!?, I knew that food was too good to be true" Lusantha said still trying to recover.

"You stupid bitch, how fucking dare you, Me, my Son, or my Father would never A: use a pussy ass tactic like that or B. waste food under any circumstances, we have far to much respect for that. The reason why you're losing your lunch is because my sword is in stun mode and when its like such, any area of the body that it hits is temporarily stunned as you can see. I hit any of your limbs, they become momentarily inoperable, your stomach, typically results in evacuation, I hit your chest, neck, head, or back area and you'll either have the wind knocked out of you, lose consciousness or both" Ryujin said as he wiped the vomit from his face.

"Well" Lusantha said as she recovered,

"I'm glad that you've told me that, now you've lost you're advantage" Lusantha said right before she put a sadistic smile on her face before charging at Ryujin again, renewing the fight.

"Hasty little bitch aren't you" Ryujin said angrily between strikes from her staff that he blocked with Seishintama.

"You have no idea how long I thought that I might never find you, and how desperate of a person that made me, I have trained my self viscously day in and day out for any obstacle that might have prevented me from getting what I want, and now that my life's goal is so close I'll be damned if I wait any longer or let anything get in my way" said a very determined Lusantha with the tone of her voice escalating with every word.

From that moment the fight continued to progress with the two combatants trading strikes and blows, with Lusantha connecting more than Ryujin. Despite this, however, Lusantha was the one that was more fatigued, she noticed, with every time that she landed a strike on Ryujin she realized that only his body would react from the force and momentum of her strikes because every time that happened she tried to follow up with a combination of strikes only for Ryujin, who, seemingly felt no pain from her strikes to immediately counter them. This would cause Lusantha to correctly deduce that one of the advantages of this form was that it felt no pain in addition to instant, temporary and partial paralysis upon contact with the sword. This in addition to how strong he naturally was without his sword and Lusantha could now understand fully how he thought he was the world's strongest warrior as he was still, in her opinion, nearly unstoppable while fighting with his sword. This, however, made Lusantha more determined on several different fronts with her looking at Ryujin, the last obstacle in her way from a long and arduous journey, as the perfect final wall to break through. This and the fact that Ryujin had so much power, to Lusantha, meant that Natsu, his son the one that she instantly fell in love with and wanted to have her children wih, could have limitless potential, she thought. Now that Lusantha knew more about the abilities of both Ryujin an Seishintama she completely altered her fighting strategy, from a cautious and defensive one due to the fact that she didn't know what tricks and surprises that she was sure that it had, to a more offensive oriented attack with a relentless onslaught of strikes with her now using deadly force, seeing it as the only way to combat this form, that she knew felt no pain and was sure had endless stamina. With her battle strategy now completely changed, with Lusantha using her superior speed, speed that Ryujin had never seen before, to deliver a bevy of deadly strikes with her staff which cause Ryujin to only be able to mount any offense after absorbing blows from her staff. Even though he felt no pain in this form the avatar had a threshold for the amount of punishment it could take based off of Ryujin's own power. In all of Ryujin's long years of service as a soldier no enemy of his had ever come close to breaking his avatar with the only person ever breaking it being Natsu breaking the avatar's non-lethal form, with every person seeing the sword's lethal form either being an ally or dead. Yet Lusantha, this mysterious woman from his race that he thought was almost extinct was on the verge of doing just that. Lusantha was blocking every strike from his sword, which he had barely been able to throw due to her relentless offense, with her staff and every strike that he was able to land while she was blocking his sword with her staff seemed to have little effect on her.

" _What in God's name is she"_

Ryujin thought to himself while blocking an overhead strike from Lusantha's staff with both of his hands steadying his sword before he forced her staff upwards and kicked her in her sternum causing her to be blown back a distance. As quick as she was knocked back, however, she recovered but not before Ryujin had begun charging at her, seeing this as his opportunity to land the blow on her that he felt needed to in order to end the fight.

"What in God's name are you?"

Ryujin said charging towards a waiting Lusantha when, right as he swung his sword at her he vanished with his after image seeming to still be swinging his sword through Lusantha's block. With Lusantha's attention still focused on Ryujin's after image Ryujin appeared behind her with Seishintama swinging directly for Lusantha's neck, but just as the glowing blue blade was two inches away from her neck it abruptly stopped dead in motion. The reason for this was that Lusantha, in a display of blinding speed herself and seemingly unmoving, had turned and swung her staff at such a blinding speed and force that she decapitated Ryujin's avatar, thus breaking it.

"Just simply better" said Lusantha in response to Ryujin's earlier question with a satisfied smile on her face.

Several yards away Ryujin's actually body had just awaken holding his head in agony.

"Son of a bitch, this hurts" Ryujin said to himself.

"So this is what being decapitated feels like, ugh it feels worse than the worst hangover I've ever had" he said while holding his head as he rose to his feet.

As he made it to his feet he realized just how much damage she had inflicted on him for the first time. In addition to his entire body being sore he had, from what he could,badly bruised ribs from all of the shots to his torso from Lusantha's staff that his avatar had absorbed. This was a completely new experience for Ryujin all together as few had been able to injure him before and even less of such had been able to do so while he was using Seishintama. The spirit avatar had absorbed a lot of the pain inflicted upon Ryujin as the damage that would have occurred to him while the avatar was active would at the least be halved when it was transferred to his actual body, and even still it was the most pain he had ever been in not inflicted upon his own doing such as during training. Although this had been the most pain he had in, in a while, Ryujin still felt more then capable to keep fighting.

"This ain't over yet" he said to himself as he picked up his sheathed sword and started making his way back to Lusantha.

Lusantha, meanwhile, thinking that she had won her fight with Ryujin, had began to make her way over to where Natsu and his grandfather was, with a depraved smile one her face. This had been the moment that she had waited so long for, all the miles she had traveled, all the hours she had spent preparing herself for what turned out being a nearly unstoppable former Imperial Army General, she had her lifelong goal right before her with no more hurdles left in her way.

"I finally have you my love" Lusantha said in that same voice she normally addressed Natsu with. Natsu on the other hand, after watching the entire fight between Lusantha and his father, had undergone a complete change in perspective based solely off the the way he watched Lusantha fight. Natsu's feelings, before this fight, for Lusantha was that he absolutely adored her with him feeling that she was a goddess and the most beautiful thing that he had seen in his life, including his sister. Just upon his meeting Lusantha, Natsu immediately felt that he would do anything for her which was only made worse when she seemingly and randomly professed her love for him. As that happened when Lusantha revealed her reason for finding them, Natsu would not have had any objection to aby of her whims with her on his mind so much, he had temporarily forgotten about his life goal which was the reason for his silence throughout he visit, all that he could think about was Lusantha. This all changed the moment that she started to disrespect his grandfather, with his thoughts about her going from adoration to feeling that she needed to be taught respect. Natsu desperately wanted to be the one to teach her that respect, but when his father stepped up and demanded to be that person Natsu knew that he couldn't object. This was only made even worse as Natsu observed the fight between them, in addition to Lusantha turning out to be not just a warrior but one that he thought might be stronger than his father. Natsu would also learn from watching this battle that, other than when his father used Seishintama, that Natsu had surpassed his father as a warrior in every way which was his main motivation on why he felt he had to fight Lusantha. Natsu had trained his entire life to be the best warrior, and now that he was thirteen and was sure that he was stronger than his father without an Imperial Arms, he couldn't wait for the chance to test the unharnised strength without any self restrictions especially after Natsu had thought that he had catalogued every mistake that his father had made against her. Therefore as Lusantha made her way towards them with that hungry look on her face, Natsu couldn't help but put the same hungry smile on his face with him almost not being able to wait to fight Lusantha. Just as she neared Natsu and his grandfather, however, they were all interrupted by the almost forgotten voice of Ryujin.

"Where in the hell do you think you're going, I'm not finished with you yet, BITCH!" said Ryujin as he then began charging towards Lusantha with Seishintama sheathed much, surprisingly, to the chagrin of both Lusantha and Natsu.

With her blocking Ryujin's initial strike Lusantha said with a wicked smile on her face,

"Oh you aren't dead, I'm glad even though you're a major prick I really don't want to kill a fellow Pachea" as she blocked his strikes,

With her now realizing that despite him showing clear injuries, that seem to have come from what she did to his "blue form", he still seem to be just as strong as ever almost suffering zero fatigue.

"And you should be happy, because it's the only reason you're alive, I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I killed you, and my sword is a different sword when it's in lethal mode" said an angry Ryujin,

"Just as I'm a different fighter when I'm fighting to kill"

Said Lusantha after barely dodging a swipe for her head before she sent a volley of jabs with her staff towards Ryujin which he mostly dodged, only getting hit sparingly and not enough for Lusantha to capitalize on. The few times that Lusantha was able to land a hit on Ryujin served nothing but a gauge to Ryujin on how much remaining strength she had left which he found out was still a massive amout almost as if she had an ability similar to Seishintama that reduced all damage and fatigue she had taken. Despite this his vast experience as a warrior allowed him to pick up the slightly sluggish movements that she was making compared to before which enabled him to find a opening during another flurry of jabs with her staff. Sidesteping through a staff thrust, Ryujin used the momentum from the turn to help him deliver a hard smack to Lusantha's left cheekbone with the sheathed Seishintama, temporarily dazing her and leaving a large red mark in its wake, before he followed that up with a lightning quick spinning jump kick to the other side of her face sending her skidding face first several meters away with him then immediately holding his back and grimacing.

 _"Son of a bitch, I shouldn't have done that, I'm not in my fucking twenties anymore"_ Ryujin thought to himself as he waited for Lusantha to recover.

"Alright get your ass up, I know damn well it's gonna take a lot more than that to put you down" said Ryujin with his arms folded over his chest.

"An indefinite amount if that's the best you can muster now" said Lusantha said as she slowly made her way to her feet.

"Oh really"

Ryujin said before he blindingly took off for Lusantha, seemingly disappearing from where he was, before reappearing directly in front of her with his right fist planted in her left cheek with a temporary smile on his face, before he realized that his punch had little affect on her, at which point his expression changed to that of shock.

"Yeah really"

Lusantha said with a sadistic smile on her face with his fist still in her cheek before she connected with a devastating kick to his sternum, sending him flying and knocking all the air from his lungs. With incredible speed and before Ryujin landed Lusantha appeared behind him and delivered a lightning quick spinning kick directly to Ryujin's spine, causing him to grunt loudly in pain before he lost consciousness. After knocking him out Lusantha landed on one knee faced towards both her victim and his immediate family face down with a sadistic toothy smile on her otherwise obscured face.

"Finally the last obstacle in my way is done" she said as she looked, stood up, and started making her way towards them.

While making her way towards Natsu and the Elder, she kicked the unconscious Ryujin before she continued,

"And you will be the perfect reward for all the hell I've been through over the last twenty years, oh, I can't wait for the moment I'll have you squirming beneath me" she said while licking her lips again.

"Hold on just one fucking second, I'm not going anywhere while I'm still standing, BRING IT" Natsu said as he balled his fist.

"Ah" Lusantha gasped out of pure shock, as this proclamation by Natsu had truthfully shocked her. Up until this point Natsu had been completely silent regarding her despite her proclamation of love to him, with her being able to literally smell his overwhelming attraction to her, she knew that he wanted her too. With her taking his silence as bashfulness and timidity over her being the first woman that he met, she thought that this was his natural persona. With him now challenging her, even after watching what she did to his father, made her love him even more as she thought he must have thought very highly of battle just as she did.

"Oh my you really want to take me on even after watching what happened to your Father" Lusantha cooed as she gave Natsu the same loving look as if he was her baby.

"Tch" was the only sound Natsu made as he, without warning, charged towards Lusantha and threw a punch at her face which she easily dodged while discarding her staff. As Natsu then continued to throw punches her way Lusantha began to laugh as she dodged them before saying while blushing,

"(giggle) Such incredible and raw power, I can already tell that you have much more than that sorry father of yours, but..." she said as she caught his fist before immediately kneeing him in his gut.

"You don't know how to use it" she said with her same sadistic grin on her face.

Unbeknownst to her, as she kneed him in the stomach, Natsu also put a small grin on his face as he immediately, with her knee seemingly having no effect on him, grabbed the arm that had his and pulled Lusantha toward him delivering a headbutt directly to her nose, breaking it, before delivering a knee of his own to her chin sendind her airborne and with her there he delivered a crushing two fisted strike directly to the middle of her chest sending her plummeting into the ground creating a small crater.

"Not as easy to beat as my father, am I, you crazy cunt, my sister hits harder than you" said Natsu as he put his foot on her her head.

"And you have no idea how happy this makes me" Lusantha said,

Slighltly muffled, under his foot before she grabbed his foot which prompted him to flipped away, and with him now shocked he said,

"What the Hell!?".

"With you already possessing this much power I won't have that much work to do at all" Lusantha said,

As she rose to her a feet before, in the blink of an eye, she suddenly appeared behind Natsu, caressing his face from behind. Natsu blushed immediately from both anger and arousal before he turned around and tried to deliver a right fist to her nose, only for it to be caught by her right hand. After catching his hand she immediately and gradually began to apply pressure to it causing Natsu a lot if pain before he tried to hit her with his left hand only for her to catch it and do the same to him that he had before as she then headbutted him, breaking his nose. This caused Natsu to fall to his knees and, with Lusantha still holding on to his fists, she went down to her knees with him with her soon bending Natsu's hands behind his back from his front. With Natsu securely in her grasp and screaming in pain Lusantha, not being able to help herself, from the pained expression on his face and how much it aroused her, gave Natsu a full on kiss on his lips, immediately stifling him and causing to grow an erection which wasn't lost on Lusantha and only caused her lust for him to grow as she intensified their kiss. At first Natsu struggled with all his might, in an attempt to break free from Lusantha's grasp, but despite him using everything he had it seemed as if he was paralyzed and couldn't budge at all. It wasn't a long time at all for Natsu struggles, from a combination of his lack of oxygen from both her long kiss and his broken nose and his ever growing arousal, to at first weaken and then slow before he stopped moving altogether, losing consciousness and going limp, in Lusantha's crushing embrace. Lusantha, unable to control herself and unaware that she was actually killing Natsu continued to lovingly kiss and embrace Natsu for several more moments unknowingly endangering his life, via asphyxiation, in the process. It was only after a few more moments that Lusantha had let go of Natsu, with her breaking their kiss, which left a trail of a mixture of blood and saliva temporarily bridging their faces, before he slowly collapsed. After breaking their kiss, with her still holding on to him, Lusantha looked into his face raking in the reward she worked so hard for, thinking his damaged face was the most beautiful thing she'd ever seen. She continued this for several more moments while stroking his hair with his face buried between her breasts as if she was comforting her child before she let him down gently on the ground and giving him another quick kiss on the lips before standing and turning to the Elder Nandeya elder.

"You want some of this too old man because I still have plenty left" she yelled to him while winding up her right arm as if she was preparing to fight him as well.

"You must be out of your fucking mind, first off, I'm not a warrior nor have I ever been, second, even if I was I'm too fucking old to be fighting anyone unless if lives or livelihoods are at stake and third and most importantly, I just watched you absolutely curbstomp both my son and my grandson, consecutively, with no rest, and I've never been as strong as either of them ever was, I would stand no chance in hell" proclaimed the Elder.

"Oh my so you're saying that, unlike your hardheaded descendants, you actually have a lick of sense" said Lusantha.

"Now, to be fair, they can't sense power the way I can, and you can't blame Ryujin, at least, for thinking he could take you, the Boy however is a different story, and besides..." said the Elder,

"Who the hell else will tend to this farm, you put these two idiots out and plan on taking one of them with you" he finished.

"Smart thinking" Lusantha said as she picked Natsu up and slung him over her shoulder while groaning slightly,

"One more thing though, I've come here after a long journey and beat your champions, I could really burn this place to the ground if I wanted to..." she said before being interrupted by tthe Elder.

"But we both know that you don't really want to do something crazy like that" he said.

"Be that as it may, I could still do that if I wanted to and I probably will unless you supply me with a few provisions for my journey to me and my mate's new home" she said.

"And what exactly would they be" the Elder asked cautiously, hoping that she wouldn't ask him for half of his farm.

"Oh just a few things, first I'm gonna need one of your best Horses, I've been hiking where I needed to go for the better part of two decades and now that I have what I've been searching for, and I refuse to carry his big ass, I'll need a beast to lay my burden upon" she said.

"Oh perfect you can take his Horse Diłnøm, damn thing probably even wouldn't listen to any of us without Natsu around, anything else your gonna need" he asked hoping that she wouldn't ask him for much more.

"Oh absolutely, seeing as how I don't much feel like hunting for my food anymore you will provide me with a Hen and a Rooster as well as a Cow and a Bull and that will be all" she said.

"Done" said the Elder.

"Good then I shall leave immediately, now is the time to say goodbye to your unconscious Grandson before you gather my provisions because I leave as soon as you do"

Lusantha said as she slung the unconscious body of Natsu over her shoulder before beginning to gather the personal belongings that she had brought with her including her staff and robe.

"There is no need for any sappy farewell to my Grandson, I know that with you he will not only grow to possibly be a peerless warrior but that you two will continue to build the Pachea name back to its former glory even through to the next generations" he said as tears began to well up in his eyes from pride.

"Well then I shall prepare for my departure" she said as she then immediately threw her long cloak back over her body.

It wasn't long after this that Lusantha had received her demanded items, said her final farewells, before making her departure, leaving the Nandeya elder to care for the badly injured Ryujin.

"Ahhhh, come on son let's get you fixed up" he said to his unconscious son while straining to pick him up,

"In such a short period of time things have changed so drastically around here, first Natsuki and now Natsu, God, I hope this doesn't destroy you son" said the Elder as he carried Ryujin inside so that he could repair his son's body and hope to repair his spirit.

* * *

It had been several hours since Lusantha and Natsu had departed from the Nandeya family's farm when Natsu finally began to regain consciousness. As he opened his eyes a sharp and splitting pain immediately rushed to his head as he held it in agony. He then began to survey the area he woke up to, looking around he noticed that he had been brought to a small cave being dimly lit by a small campfire. It wasn't long after this that he realized the reason why he was even here and at that same moment he noticed that, that very reason was also sitting directly over him with his head resting in his lap.

"Well, it's about time you woke up, my love, I know I didn't hurt you that bad" Lusantha said in her loving voice while stroking his hair. It was at this moment that Natsu had noticed Lusantha's attire or lack of it from his perspective as she was wearing nothing but her long and thick black robe with it opened revealing her entire naked body to him.

"Oh God" said Natsu as his nose began to bleed which caused Lusantha to immediately grab him and shove his face, and bleeding nose in between her breasts.

"Ahhh, no reason to be shy my love, I'll guide you right along through this" she said as she stroked the back of his head for a moment before she pulled him into a long and passionate kiss.

At first Natsu tried to pushed her away but, after a few moments of her kissing, allowing her saliva to enter his mouth, he immediately began to fall numb in her arms almost as if her saliva was a paralyzing agent that rendered him helpless to her whims. She continued this for several more moments eventually causing him to lower to the ground with with her on top of him. For a while she remained on top of him kissing before she straddled his waist sitting on his croch which had a growing erection causing her to elicit a small and intimate "oooh" from her lips and a strained "ahhh" from his before she began to remove his shirt. Natsu wanted to yell at her to stop but, because what she was doing to him felt so good, he also didn't want her to stop and thus said nothing as she took his shirt off and began to pepper his chest with kisses then leading up to his neck then chin before she made her way back to his lips. She then slid her hand down into the front of his shorts as she began to stroke the erection that she had been responsible for, causing him to moan in pleasure again. Natsu cries of pleasure were immediately stifled as Lusantha locked Natsu in a suffocating kiss the moment his mouth opened, with her sticking her tongue into his mouth and circling it around his as she continued to use her fingers to fondle his erection causing him to near his breaking point. With Lusantha seemingly being able to sense this from him she abruptly stopped kissing him and removed her hand from his pants before speaking.

"How dare you" she said before giving him a scolding slap across his cheek,

Which only served to increase his arousal rather than being painful, before she grabbed him by his hair, still having the same effect on him, and continuing her scolding.

"You are NOT allowed to come yet, or EVER for that matter, unless if it's emptied inside of me, from now on all of your semen belongs inside of my body, do I make myself clear" she said still with a firm grip on his hair from her position on top of him. With Natsu feeling as if he had a gigantic lump in his throat stunting his ability to talk, due to the effect Lusantha was having on him, he tried to say anything that would get her to stop this assault on him that he hated that he enjoyed so much. As he tried to speak he found that the erotically intense state that she caused him to be in had rendered him unable to speak with his lips moving but no words coming. Even still with all of Natsu's mental denial it still couldn't overcome the overwhelming desire his body had for this, and so he answered her the only way that he felt he could and nodded to her. "Good, now are you ready for this" she said as she tore off the front of his pants and positioned herself directly above his waiting erection. This time Natsu answered her with a shake of his head out of the literal fear that he had for what she was about to do to him and the even worse effect that it could potentially have on him. With Lusantha knowing full well the effect she was having on him, and how much he was enjoying this, she had asked her question to him rhetorically not even expecting an answer, which is why she was surprised that he even answered at all. Still, even with his unexpected answer, it wasn't going to, even for second, have Lusantha second guess her actions as she then immediately said the words,

"Well then, that's just too bad" before she abruptly jammed him inside of her breaking both of their virginities, with the sound echoing throughout the cave.

"Hnnnnnn" as Lusantha let out a muffled cry with Natsu simultaneously letting out a much louder,

"HUUUUH". With her face immediately turning a beat red as it also instantly became flush with sweat, at first Lusantha sat still with her physically unable to move due to the pure shock and ecstasy of being penetrated for the first time. It would turn out to be several more moments before Lusantha would recollect herself as Natsu was completely lost in his pleasure and his motor functions out of his control, with the only thing on Natsu's mind currently was how good this experience felt and how best to continue on. Lusantha, for her part, couldn't believe the level in which she was enjoying this, with all the stories she had heard about the first time being terrible, she had entered this with low expectations with her main satisfaction coming from the very fact that this would be the moment that the children she had waited her whole life for would be created. As she thought more about that fact combined with this new overwhelming pleasure had a radical effect on her, with her original intention being to take this ordeal slow and loving as she felt that that was how someone's fist time should be, but the sheer pleasure easily took over her behavior and thus she became feral like. She forcefully pulled him into a seated position by his hair while pulling it as she aggressively kissed him with her now grinding into him faster and harder while moaning so bestial she sounded canine. With her newfound aggressive approach Natsu's screams of both pleasure and agony increased with him now being completely mentally stupified and only able to focus on pleasing Lusantha as the sound of his screams, her growls and the sound of their rapid coitus echoed throughout the cave. It wouldn't take much of them moving at the frenetic pace, that Lusantha had initiated, for Lusantha herself to reach her climax and as she did her abuse of Natsu reached its apex. With her vaginal muscles rapidly contracting, her growls of pleasure turned into roars as she held onto Natsu in a crushing embrace as she began to viciously claw at his back leaving long red trails with drops of blood seeping out behind. It wouldn't take long for all of Lusantha's frenzied movements to take their toll on Natsu as a sensation, one in which he had never felt before in life, had soon began to rip it's way through his body. With the wave of pleasure surging it's way through his body, and with him completely numb to all the pain Lusantha was currently inflicting upon him, Natsu released his very first ejaculation inside of her causing both to simultaneously cry out in pain/pleasure. As Natsu continued to release his very first ejaculation into her with the sensation causing Lusantha to orgasm even further as she then pulled him into a crushing and passionate kiss that muffled they're moans as those sounds, the sound of their sweat dripping off them and the sound of Lusantha slowly and twitchingly grinding into him echoed throughout the cave. With Natsu, due to the numbing sensation, only able to lay and pant heavily Lusantha continued to grind into him slowly for several more monents before she herself lost her strength and collapsed on top of him panting just as heavily as Natsu with him instinctively wrapping his arms around her small waist. After several more moments she slowly pulled him out of her causing them to both moan one last and long time during the entire process before she laid beside him pulling her animal pelt blanket over their bodies as she began to lovingly stroke his face. Right as Lusantha was about to speak, Natsu suprisingly interjected.

"What in God's name did you do to me, that has never fucking happened to me before" he said.

Before she responded Lusantha couldn't help but to let out a small giggle,

"(Giggle), You didnt enjoy it" she asked seductively.

"Did you steal apart of my soul, I've never in my life felt so weak" he said completely ignoring her.

With her giggling a bit more she said,

"Well in a way I did, you see Natsu, that was called sex and it is how every human being is created" she said as if she were explaining it to a five year old for the first time.

"Wait, that's what sex is!?, _no wonder dad and grandpa would always say that sex was the downfall of every ambitious man"_ he thought to himself.

"It sure is and was it not the most spectacular experience you've ever had in your life" she asked him as she continued to stroke his face and hair.

Feeling himself compelled to tell the truth Natsu swallowed deeply before saying,

"I've never experienced anything like that before in my life, it felt like the rush that I get in my heart from fighting spread out in tiny pieces all over my whole body, I don't think good or great are the best ways to describe it, that was unimaginable" he said.

At this Lusantha squealed before giddily hugging and kissing him on the lips before saying, while blushing and stroking his hair with her fingers,

That was by far the most wonderful thing I've ever had in my life", as tears began to fall from her eyes,

"Better than I ever could have imagined it to be, and now that I know you feel the same way it makes it so much better, I love you so much, you and I are gonna have a long and beautiful life together along with our children" she said before lovingly kissing him again only longer this time.

Thinking about what she just said caused Natsu to be conflicted in his thoughts, on one hand sex been far and away one of the most enjoyable experiences that he could remember in his life and he wanted to do it more, but on the other hand he feared Lusantha would turn him into nothing more than her sex slave all while she would give birth to and train what could be the strongest warriors this world had ever seen. With him already knowing, based off how much he enjoyed this first experience, that he was very much susceptible to throwing away all his life's ambitions and dreams to become essential her toy, with the ONLY depending factor on this being her will to do so. With Natsu now fully realizing that his entire future was now completely subject to Lusantha's whims, he worked himself up to ask her a question because he felt he needed to know the answer immediately.

"Lusantha?" He said timidly.

"Yes my love" she said in her lovingly voice.

"I need to know what do you plan to do with me, I mean, am I now destined to live the rest of my life as a slave to you while I watch you accomplish everything that I ever wanted to?"He asked becoming angrier by the moment as he then sat up.

For a moment Lusantha just layed where she was with a concerned look on her face staring at Natsu before she slowly rose to the same seated position he was in. Then without warning the expression on her face immediately warped from concern to frustration as she then angrily slapped him across the face before furiously saying.

"How dare you even allow such a bullshit ass thought to enter your mind even right after I've showed you just how much I love you, of course our children are our first priority, but even if it killed me, I'll see to it that you are just as strong as me" she said as her voice grew softer with each word before she began to caress his cheek in the area she struck before she continued.

"I love you more than life itself, with your potential strength I immediately knew that you were the one that was always meant for me and if I were to let that strength go to waste selfishly I'd be a horrible person, that isn't love, that's ownership and not something I want you to feel if I can at all help it" she said still caressing his cheek as her eyes began to moisten from the emotional strain of her words.

Feeling the raw and overwhelming emotion eminating from her, Natsu did not want to believe her, still wanting to hate her with him feeling that it could eventually drive him to gain the strength he needed to beat her, though he could feel in his heart that she must have been telling the truth. Even still Natsu couldn't believe her, she had already done so much wrong to him, it wouldn't be nothing for her to continue to deceive him, he had to ask her again because subconsciously, after the beautiful moment that they just shared, he felt she couldn't lie to him while looking in his eyes, and so with Emerald eyes gazing into eachother he asked her.

"Please tell me, it feels like a matter of life and death, do you really mean that? Will you really allow me to grow as strong as I could've been without deterance" he said. For several moments Lusantha stared at him silently, not answering his question and increasing his anxiety over his situation before she suddenly and very passionately began kissing him like never before, as if she choose to answer all of his quetions and doubts with it. Lusantha would hold this kiss for a few moment which lead to Natsu excepting this as her affirmative answer, putting his mind at ease it wasnt long into the long kiss, that Lusantha wasn't breaking, that both of their arousal grew again. The two soon began to have intercourse once again only longer and more passionate the second time, in which afterward Lusantha immediately fell asleep cuddling next to Natsu leaving the young Pachean up deep in his thoughts, contemplating what the future may hold for him, coming to one conclusion:

"I _t's gonna be a fucking trainwreck"_ as that thought continued to gnaw at his mind before he soon too fell asleep.

 **Chapter One: Prologue: First Half, End**.

 **Chapter One: Prologue: First Half, Epilogue**.

Four Years Later: Nandeya Family Farm

It had been over four years since the departure of both of the Nandeya twins, Natsu and Natsuki, from their family's farm. In the subsequent time the maintenance of the the farm had taken a severe slide in both appearance and productivity with it now being less prosperous than it's was before Ryujin had returned home. With the twins doing a lot of the grunt work the farm had flourished unlike never before almost to the point where Ryujin and his father had little to do at all around the farm. Now, with both of his children gone, Ryujin had entered into a state of deep depression, with him now completely turning into a shell of the once peak physical condition that he had been. Everyday, instead of waking up at the break of dawn just to train before he would proceed with the day, he would now sleep well past midday. Where, even when the twins got old enough to do most of the farm work, after training he'd immediately start helping around the farm, he'd now spend most of his free time drinking and lazing away only helping out occasionally. The elder Nandeya felt both great sorrow for his son and a huge sense of helplessness as he watched Ryujin kill him self both mentally and physically. As far as appearances went while the elder Nandeya's appearance had remained mostly the same, Ryujin's had changed drastically. He had gained a considerable amount of weight, mainly in his torso, as well as also, due to a lack of shaving, he had grown a long and thick beard. He also, due to hid deep depression and stress he put himself through, in just four years his hair had went from mostly brown with just a small few gray streaks to now being just as gray as his father's. The Elder Nandeya, as much as he wanted to do anything he could to eleviate the stress that his son was going through he knew that, with his son's fragile state of mind, any uncareful word or action in an effort to ease him could have dire consequences including him killing himself. It was this very dilemma that troubled the Nandeya Elder on the present day as he had woken up, to begin his daily activities, at his routine time of seven in the morning. He would then check on Ryujin, seeing if today had been one of the extremely rare occasions where Ryujin would already be working on the farm by the time he had awaken however, unsuprisingly to him, as he cracked the door to Ryujin's room he not only noticed that he was still sleep but he also couldn't help but notice the overwhelming smell of alcohol eminating from the room causing him to immediately shut the door back.

 _"Poor child"_ the elder thought to himself before he continued down the hallway into the kitchen to prepare his daily coffee.

After his coffee had been made he walked over to the front door with his coffee in hand and prepared to take on the day activities. As he opened the door however, he was greeted by an absolutely shooking sight which caused him to immediately drop his coffee mug and scream his son's name in apparent distress. This caused Ryujin to immediately jump up and, with him fearing the worse, as in the Man Empire had finally tracked him down, Ryujin immediately grabbed Seishintama, which he kept under his bed, and bolted toward his father's position. Upon his arrival Ryujin's expression became just as shocked as his father's at the sight before him causing him to immediately drop his sword ant the sight. What stood before Ryujin was his father reading a piece of paper..., and three clearly Pachean children, one early child with blonde hair and a medium Brown complexion, a toddler with light brown hair and light brown skin, and an infant with dark brown, almost black, hair and a tan complexion in a basket all lying unconscious on their doorstep.

"What in the hell is this?" He asked.

And almost as if on que his father, having finished reading the piece of paper, immediately dropped it and stood still, mouth agape, in stunned silence. Seeing this Ryujin immediately grabbed the piece of paper from where his father had dropped it and immediately began reading it. With the note reading,

"To the Ryujin Nandeya, This letter is to inform you that your son, Natsu Nandeya, is now dead. Enclosed are his surviving progeny, in birth order, Kyouta Nandeya, age 3, Tatsumi Nandeya, 1 and Yoryu Nandeya, 5 weeks, who have been left to you simply as a mercy for the life that I took, do with them what you will."

The moment that Ryujin had finished reading the part that said his son was dead he immediately clutched his chest and fell to his feet sobbing uncontrollably with him being intsantly joined by his father, who was now sobbing just as much as he was, as they held eachother in a comforting embrace. The two would stay in that position, mourning the apparent lose of their son and grandson, for several moments before Ryujin spoke in between son's.

"Dad, I need to know now, you still have those old family test, don't you?" he asked trying and failing to hold his composure.

"Of course, you really need to know now, I could destroy you" his father asked.

"Yes I HAVE to know, immediately" Ryujin said unable to hide his frustration from his father.

"Yes right away"

The elder said as he then immediately bolted for his medical room while Ryujin, very gently, gathered the three still unconscious children, and carried them all to the twin's old room and gently placed them on Natsu's old bed. It was only mere seconds, after Ryujin had finished moving the children, before his father had arrived with the old Pachean family test.

"Here, you remember how this works, right son?" asked the elder.

"Of course, you take one of their hairs and then one of ours you dip them in the solution and if one doesn't change the color it's a positive match"

Replied Ryujin recalling all the times his father had made him do this test himself with his justification for it being that there were a LOT of women in this world that are "Scandalus" and will try to trap him with children that aren't his for a "Shit load" of reasons. Within moments he had already prepped the test on his son's old night stand and had dipped a piece of Natsu's hair from a hair band on his dresser in the solution causing it to turn into a dark orange/red hue.

"Okay here we go" Ryujin said as he walked up to the children and plucked a hair from each of their heads which caused him to remark,

"Dad, they had to have been sedated, no child this young sleeps like this" as he did so.

"No doubt in my mind and by the looks of it, it was something incredibly powerful, a war could be going on here and they'd still be out" the elder said.

Ryujin then began to administer the test as he poured the red orange mix true into three separate containers and then in sequence placed each of their hairs in the separate containers and then waited a few moments for the results. As both Ryujin both waited on the results it would only be a few moments before both of their eyes widened in utter shock with them both saying in unison,

"OH GOD!".

The contents of all three containers, with each of the three boys hair in each of them hadn't changed in color at all not even slightly, meaning that these three boys, Kyouta, Tatsumi, and Yoryu, were beyond a shadow of a doubt Natsu's son, thus Ryujin's grandsons and then The Elder Nandeya's great grandsons. This startling revelation caused Ryujin to fall to his knees in shocked as his father immediately started crying as he removed his glasses,

"I can't believe it, all three of you, you poor children " he said as he walked over to them and began stroking there heads.

"No Dad, don't feel sorry for them, this is a divine sign from God" Ryujin said as he grabbed his father's arm, staying it.

"Boy, what in the hell are you talking about?" his father asked while snatching his arm away rather forcefully.

"These three boys are a clear second chance for me sent by God to make up for failing my own children, I can sense great power from all of them, and I know you do to, hell, probably even better than me, I WONT fuck it up this time" Ryujin stated emphatically.

"I've told you, I dont know how many times, you shouldn't blame yourself for that, there was literally nothing you could do, you were overprotective of Natsuki, as any father of a daughter would be, and Lusantha was a demon, it's few people walking the planet thats even close to her" said the elder, revisiting this topic for the first time since the two children had separately departed.

"No Dad, you weren't in the Imperial Military like I was, I have seen them turn pathetic, weak and whimpering kids into damn near perfect killing machines for battle by the time they were adults, with their intense training style, my problem was I was too soft on Natsu always afraid that i might kill him or cause him to grow up hating me. With these little bastards, I could care less if they grow up hating me, It'll only make them stronger, even if I wind up killing one I'll still have two more to get it right" said Ryujin.

"You can't be fucking serious these are our grandson's" the elder angrily stated. "Yes they are, all the more reason why I have to do this, if I had trained Natsu the way the Empire had began to train children he'd be just now leaving us to go conquer that very same Empire, instead he's dead, I won't allow that to happen to them, I cant, I'd much rather have them die here with respect and dignity, then have them die in service of the Empire simply because they're too weak" said a determined Ryujin.

"Well than, I guess you've already made up your mind about this than" the elder asked.

"Yes Dad I haven't been more sure of anything in my life" replied Ryujin.

"Alright son, as I told you long ago I'm here to support you in life no matter what it is that you do, no matter how much I disagree with it, I'm here for you son" said the elder as he put his hand on Ryujin's shoulder,

Mentally resolving to himself that his son was now in a very fragile mental state and that it'd likely be best for all five of them for him to allow his son to carry on and pray for the best.

"Thanks Pops, honestly that's all I can ask for, I know you may disagree with this but trust me I know what I'm doing, I guarantee none of them will die. I sense great potential radiating from these three, and I know you do to, they could be unstoppable from an early age with the right training, hell one of them just may be the one" Ryujin said as he walked over to his grandson's.

"Kyouta, Tatsumi and Yoryu, huh, rest well my children soon you will all be unstoppable warriors" Ryujin said as he kissed each one of them on the forehead with him being sure that this would be the only time in their lives that he would ever show them affection as a tear rolled down his cheek, there wouldn't be any time for that.

"But at what cost, my Son, what cost" the elder thought to himself over the price his son would pay to create demons for grandson's.

 **Prologue Chapter First Half: End.**

Author's Note: Again thank you all very much for your patience and If you have any questions regarding anything please feel free to ask them, I will answer anything as long as it doesn't give away too much of the plot unless of course if you guys are able to figure it out. Again hope you guys enjoy it and will again try my hardest to have the next chapter out as soon as possible.


End file.
